Remembering that if you are taking off into icing conditions with the engine failure (assuming you intend to return to land) Boeing recommend the holding pattern be conducted clean for as long as practicable. In any case, your claim of extra load on the crew during flap retraction is nothing out of the ordinary. Same with flap extension. There is more load on the crew if fiddling with FMC's at low altitude. There is so much
about crews being overloaded even when the tasks are mundane. You have been reading too much psycho-babble.