The myth about the strength of the landing gear is just that, a myth.
As has been pointed out, the C150 and 152 have different demonstrated crosswind values (12 and 17kt if my memory serves correctly. It has been 2 years since I went near one of them thank goodness!) this difference was subscribed potentially to the difference between tecniques for crosswind landings between the test pilots. Since they are virtually identical airframes, there is no difference in the strength of the landing gear.
I have often flown a/c well outside of the cross wind limits and I have instilled in me, my own set of personal limits. The worst being a 40 kt gusting crosswind at night.......... In driving rain.....(Basically the sort of time you find out that adrenaline is brown in colour! Don't do it, it's neither big or clever.)
For the club, I insist on people at different stage of training having different limits, for example a first solo is not allowed in any more than 5kts of x-wind, whereas a PPL is allowed upto the limit as procribed in the book, but this is not an absolute limit to ensure that there can be no potential insurance snafu's in case of an accident.
The word "demonstrated" is an advisory limit, the Yanks use it since they are worried about someone sueing them for loss of control at a lower wind speed and then insisting that the a/c should of been controllable despite the obvious lack of pilot skill rather than a/c malfunction or design causing any problems.