I should imagine if you were landing with say, a wind 20° or 30° off and at around 15 gusting lots , it doesn't matter where YOU want the Aeroplane to go, the brake chute is going to dictate that particular matter.
ACW342,
From my experience, the gist of what you say is true, even on runways with standing water....but that example is really a minimal crosswind. The steady crosswind in that example is only 7.5 knots which is usually easily handled by, say for example, an F-4 with that wide main gear on snow. As rudder effectiveness diminishes, nosewheel steering may allow for better directional control (ice is problematical for that).
The x-wind limits for the jets I'm familiar with were predicated on the chute being deployed, higher crosswinds and you had the option of not using the chute if runway length permitted (the NATO minimum 8000' most times did, but there was always the tailhook and departure end cable.)
Generally the width of the main gear contributed to the x-wind limit.
In the old F-100, the requirement was to put the nosewheel down and engage nosewheel steering prior to deploying the chute, even on a dry runway, and then in extreme cases be ready to jettison the chute and put the hook down.
(Except for the Air Defense guys, if the runway wasn't plowed, you could always cancel flying and have a beer)
