Gnow, the Bristow Aberdeen EC225 fleet has amassed about 40,000 hrs and, despite strong crosswinds being normal, we have never had a pop on takeoff. Perhaps it is to do with the ambient temperature, very rarely above 20C here!
When you get the pop, is OFS still showing, or is it after the heli has passed 35kts or so and no OFS showing. If the former, pressing the manual button will have no effect.
On checklist use, Bristow policy is that startup checks are carried out from memory, but everything from pre-taxi to after-landing is done C&R from the checklist. Shutdown checks are done from memory.
I don't see that C&R for startup is intrinsically very bad, but it is surely slow and what do you do for a ground run - do you have to have 2 pilots? I think with a flow method you are less likely to omit something. Reading from a checklist is no guarantee that items will not be missed, but to some extent leads to the perception that the pilot making the actions is absolved from having to think about it. I am sure there are arguments both ways.