The other benefit of the sideflare is that it gives you better visibility of the deck/superstructure. A straight in approach leaves you looking at the ship's superstructure over the glareshield. A sideflare approach gives you a great view out those huge windows on the doors (I've had old phrog guys talk about vertrepping with the door off. It was apparently awesome).
The 45 degree approach to the deck seems to take in account both worlds of straight in and sideflare and is pretty fast.