88.8% vs 90.1% is really a big deal. What matters to me is 1) are the needles touching the donuts? Yes? Ok, the engines are producing the amount of thrust the FADECs are commanding, and 2) does the Perf page thrust setting match what the FMA says? If yes, things are good. If no, something is set wrong, and it's likely I'll end up just going to TOGA anyway, so then the beautiful briefing about the percentage of N1 to expect is now moot anyway.
Read my post again. We were in a plane without ACARS. The verification is where I caught the FO's mistake. Which is why we look at the numbers (either from load planning or AeroData) , cross check them when we brief the gross weight indicated on the lower ECAM DU, and why I wrote "all I care about is gross weight, flap setting, FLEX or TOGA, nav or heading."