Rex,
I'm honestly not trying to have a go at "you", but pointing out that you have to be very careful with what you say. You mention that simply the three letters "OAA" spark fury in people, so why give them ammunition. Opinions like Mad Jock's are formed by people making ill thought out comments that they can seize on.
Yes, I don't think there's a person on this board, or any other, that would say weather forecasting is an exact science and I fully accept that it can turn nasty(ier) than planned in no time at all. But the point is, exactly as Groundloop pointed out, if you're out of limits you stay in the circuit until such time as you can make an approach or you divert to alternate. You're right to say we weren't cleared to land at Mobile solo, but [Not sure if you were there after P Taylor took over as CFI, or whether it was still Tom] I'll bet good money either would have backed you landing away at Mobile rather than making an approach in ~35k x-wind. If you genuinely landed in anything approach 30k X-wind then get over your pride and accept that it was really poor airmanship to have even tried. Put it this way, the instructors wouldn't try landing in that and you certainly weren't better than those guys, even with tons of natural ability, with 75hours under your belt
FWIW, My opinion on this is actually formed from the fact that I had exactly the kind of sudden weather shift you're talking about, just before touch down whilst flying 9844S landing on 21. Basically got hit by C.25k gust direct across the runway at touchdown, causing me to weathercock. I got away with it. I didn't "handle it correctly", I got away with it. And I damn near had to change my trousers. Tower called extreme caution for all in circuit for Windshear on final, so I know it wasn't me. I wasn't exactly liberal with chances anyway - possibly cos I'm an old git, but that taught me exactly how little I knew.
The other point to consider is that you can get away with it 99 times, but you only have to NOT get away with it once. The rules are there so that you have that safety margin that you CAN do it almost all the time.
I too think Mad Jocks Wildly sweeping statement is laughably naieve and I think it shows him(her?) in a terribly bad light (especially considering some of the things I've seen mod students do!) -but you've absolutely fed him here.
edited to say that the original point about OAA students being unable to handle crosswinds - let's face it, you only learn X-wind landings by DOING them. When I was in GYR, there was at least a period where ALL flying was canned if X-wind exceeded (I think it was) 10 knots. WE knew it was lunacy and lobbied for that to be removed (which it was). So you can see why MJ thinks as he does. The fact he's wrong is neither here nor there.