For direction, we collected average direction and standard deviation. The stronger the winds, the greater the variations. We had nice smooth graphs, including the standard deviation graphs. There isn't any harm in smoothing windspeed and direction. The type of data needed is up to the user.
Airports typically report a one-minute average for windspeed and direction.
I once had a meteorologist who wanted gust data, and as much as I could supply. A 100mS sampling period almost wasn't enough for him. I reminded him about the distance constants, and he said that he'd consider it in the results, but he still wanted everything. If you smooth the wind too much, you will lose the gust information, but you can be creative and have average and gust data. Maybe some of you can use these tidbits to make your data look better.