Pilots tend to carry power and airspeed in an attempt to "grease" the landing. Really you should be crossing the threshold at the bottom of the bucket, VRef, but most pilots cross the threshold at the middle of the bucket to the top of the bucket- VRef +5-10.
While we tend to judge pilots on that smooth touchdown I would much rather see a pilot make a "firm" (not hard), landing but not use up the TDZ versus a greaser that barely makes it into the TDZ. Too often I see pilots get in the habit of trying to make that smooth landing, then also not using much braking or TR's. Great if the conditions are perfect but less than desirable if you run into issues. I've had to use almost all of 4R at DTW when I was the first to land with MU's of 40+.
If I had not used maximum braking and TR's we probably would have gone off the end.
https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/.../AC_91-79A.pdf