In all the years that I took new drivers for their driving test in a manual transmission, not one was ever faulted for not gearing down to a stop.  

Occasionally an examiner might voice their opinion, in favour of gearing down but I could never get a compelling, logical explanation for it. 

Later I discovered that many examiners have never driven a manual in their life, and as such are poorly qualified to judge someone shifting skills.  So if one expects consistency in testing - it's definitely not happening in a manual vehicle.