Wow, what a difference!
Though I think each recipe will behave a little differently wrt refrigeration. Spreading is not just a function of dough temp, but also composition (flour to fat ratio, type of fat used, etc.), handling, thickness to which dough is rolled, etc. I never chill my dough after rolling and cutting, but I do cut and bake some batches straight from the fridge and others after the dough has been sitting out at room temp for a while. I'm not sure how much bigger the bottom cookie is (it looks at least a half inch bigger), but I've never experienced this amount of variation in spreading with my recipe. Possibly because I have a higher flour to fat ratio, or because of the type of fat I use.
That said, I still advocate for using a well chilled dough. You'll use less flour to dust the work surface and the cookie will end up more tender.
TIP: 
I never dust the work surface with flower, i roll my dough out between 2 pieces of baking parchment or 2 sheets of cling film