most crosswind limits, are not really limits, they are "demonstrated" limits. If you can demonstrate a new limit, go for it.
However, if you have a malfunction, i.e. partial flap, no in flight spoilers, multiple hydraulic failure, and so on, and are now limited to a 20 knot limit, thats a "hard" limit. I've seen many a pilot demonstrate a landing that was over the demonstrated limit in the book.
Many of these pilots had several/many thousand hours as PIC in the planes which was significantly more than than the test pilots had when demonstrating the limit.