“With the traction and stability control in the newest cars, probably not an issue, but as mentioned you can end up with wheel spin in older cars, and that’s not good...”
Traction control, at least on my Jeep Patriot works to keep wheels turning the same speed by application of a little brake to the spinning wheel. I don’t believe it would have any effect of improving traction of both wheels spinning at same speed.
I would always recommend not using cruise control on slick roads. That way you can help maintain control with the throttle when needed immediatly rather than having to disengage the cruise control first. The immediate reaction to disengage the cruise control is to hit the brake which can be a very bad thing in a slick road. Maybe not as bad as when we didn’t have ABS, but I prefer to start my slowdown with releasing the throttle instead of apping brake.
But maybe I am a control freak.
Traction control on my Z06 is controlled by retarding ignition timing and sapping power to the wheels. The stability control engages brakes at individual wheels when it senses the car yawing. I imagine they went a different route on the Jeep with off road in mind.