Any addnodes (& maybe connects) in .conf file utilize user set timeout value (if defined), I think it'd make more sense if they ignored it and retained the base 5000ms timeout value.
I have timeout value set to 220ms, but there are a dozen or so nodes in Asia that I'd still like to connect to regardless of my customized timeout setting.
I've made a 'force' addnode from command line, bitcoin-cli addnode xx.xx.xx.xx force which is essentially just an addnode onetry that ignores my timeout value and uses 1000ms instead. Would probably be good to have something similar in base client if nothing else is changed.