I suppose another point worth mentioning is that in the "olden days" when a/c had less crosswind capability airports had more than one runway oriented in different directions! For example Liverpool had RW 17/35 and 08/26, even Heathrow had 05/23 as well as the westerly runways. Many airports for a variety of reasons have closed these other runways!
As we were on approach to a certain airport today I joked to the F/O "Why cannot they build runways into wind!" Still it means we are quite (?) proficient at crosswind take offs and landings given that most modern a/c have relatively high crosswind limits.