I don't know about 4wd...
...but I too prefer a rear-wheel drive Volvo station wagon to a front-wheel drive US car.
A few years ago, we had one of those city-wide shutdowns - 1.5 feet of snow on everything. Nobody went anywhere, and those who did generally got stuck.
Except for me.
My wife was working at a group home as a caregiver for people with cerebral palsy, and nobody could get there because the cars kept getting stuck. So I drove her there and back, over and over, along with the rest of the staff, for the week it took to unbury the city.
The key to driving a rwd vehicle is that you're driving a boat, not a car, when it's snowy or icy. The car continues in motion in the direction you were headed instead of instantly turning. As long as you remember that, you don't have that much of a problem.
Also, not having to worry about snow drifts is quite handy. If you drive into something that you can't get through, you just back out of it. With fwd, you're stuck.
