Either you live on a truly awful road or you don't know how to drive. As a fellow native of South Carolina I can tell you have not driven in the frgid north much.
My driveway sometimes has over 12" of snow and ice on it and is at a 45 degree angle with no approach for a running start, just a 90 degree turn off a dirt road.
And the dirt road in the spring, which is referred to as MUD week when the frost comes out of the ground, has mud that is over a foot deep.
My 4X4 Jeep makes it in a breeze. My wife's AWD Subaru has to wait for the plow on our driveway and bottoms out on the road in MUD week.
Having grown up in red clay I can truthfully say, "It don't come close."
It is true that I haven't driven much in the north but I have driven fifty miles at a stretch on solid frozen rain right here in SC but not at a forty five degree angle to the verticle. I have started from a dead stop going uphill on solid ice on a fairly steep upgrade by putting the car in gear and letting the engine idle and stepping outside and pushing until it started to roll slightly and then jumping back in. It is amazing what a plain old rear wheel drive car will do if you push it to its limits. We used to drive up and down hills on clay mud that was almost as slippery as ice and the secret is to go as fast as you dare downhill and then ease up on the accelerator every time the wheels start to spin going up the next hill. If you handle it just right you keep dropping speed until you top the next hill just before you completely lose traction and stop.
I have seen people get stuck with four wheel drive vehicles in conditions not as bad as what we used to drive through on a regular basis with a two wheel drive. Of course, if snow or mud is really deep there is no substitute for ground clearance.