I was taught the crab technique from day one on gliders, which I learned to fly before powered, due I suppose to the long wingspan low ground clearance of gliders. When I learned powered my instructor, who is also a gliding instructor, asked me what xwind technique I used on gliders and I told him; so he said that I may as well use it in powered as it was what I was used to.
I've never had a problem with the 'kick off' drift method, I don't think it requires superhuman skills or timing (can't do if I can do it!).
Next bit of the story. In later years I got to know a GA instructor who is also a 757 captain. He is a disciple of the wing down method, which he uses while flying the 757 and teaches as a GA instructor. He explained it as mentioned in previous posts with the addition of, and I paraphrase, 'If you can't keep straight on the centreline using the rudder on the approach you know you are going to run out of control authority when you land it, so it's a safety check as well as a valid method of landing xwind; plus when you land you already have the 'correct' cross controls applied.' The more I thought about this the more it made sense. So I tried doing a few wing down approaches when landing xwind. I was surprised by how little 'wing down' you need even in quite strong xwinds.
The problem I have at the moment with this technique is I have to think about it when lining up for final, it's not intuitive to me like a crab landing is. I suppose it boils down to how you were trained in the first place but having tried both methods, and I'm sure I would get familiar with the wing down technique the more I use it, they are both valid for most GA aircraft and basically it's boils down to whatever floats your boat. Or aircraft across the centreline...
