Pedal position does nothing during cranking because the fuel rack is already at full fuel. RE: the governor is trying to maintain idle speed but the pump isn't turning.

A _slight_ bit of pedal in order to keep idle speed up a few hundred RPM over hot idle could be helpful on engines that don't have a high idle / cold advance mechanism.

You want to avoid a cranking RPM to 2000 + at start that a 1/2 or full pedal gives, doing so is hard on bearings as oil pressure has not built yet.