Yeah, that first one is just a waste of gas. But keeping it clean and fast to just outside the FAF and then bringing the power to idle and throwing all the flaps/slats out is pretty common (provided it's VMC and there aren't any other factors that would make you want to keep the engines spooled up). It usually works out that you're right at Ref+5 and adding the power back right around 500'...at least in the CRJ.