[jltsiren]

From my Finnish perspective, discussion and decisionmaking are separate activities that need separate meetings. If someone wants to discuss something and then make the decision in the same meeting, I assume that they want to rubber-stamp the decision they have already made. If they come in prepared but the others don't, they have an advantage. If everyone comes in prepared, the actual discussion has likely already happened, and further discussion would be a pointless ritual.

The meetings where decisions are made can be large, because that gives legitimacy to the decisions. Discussions tend to happen in smaller groups, because it's impossible to have an actual discussion with more than about six people. If there are more people, some will dominate the discussion, while others will remain silent.