With a high crosswind, the higher the thrust setting the greater the risk of inlet separation and engine surge. As soon as you get some forward airspeed the risk of inlet separation drops rapidly.
Setting some 'off idle' power setting such as 1.1 EPR prior to selecting TOGA is because many engines are 'lazy' off idle. If one engine accelerates faster off idle you can get a big thrust asymmetry and resultant yaw, often resulting in an RTO.