This seems so counter-intuitive. But possible. I have not read many studies that find a link between variability and complications (although I posted one recently, although not a cohort study: Short-term Peaks in Glucose Promote Renal Fibrogenesis Independently of Total Glucose Exposure).
I would love to believe it is true, because my son is going through such a roller coaster of puberty peaks. But I have a feeling that, eventually, we will find a link. It is just hard to come up with such a study, because of the logistics of truly tracking variability.