Spend some time in actually wintery places, like the north of Sweden/Norway/Finland, or Siberia, and you'll find most people don't drive large vehicles. AWD and snow tires make a far bigger difference than raw size, and plenty of SUVs are utterly terrible in winter conditions.

Scandinavian countries tend to have moderate climates due to marine currents warming the air. Siberia is poor AF.

I am guessing that you haven't been to the north of any of the Scandinavian countries I mentioned. Stockholm is indeed pretty moderate. Luleå in winter, not so much. Svalbard, not moderate at all.

I bet a small car with 4x4 will beat a big car without it under most snow situations. And you don't need all that much ground clearance for snow in most of the US.

Saying bigger vehicles "tend to" have 4x4 is not a counter to what I said.

Snow tires make a far bigger difference than anything else and yet people rarely get them. I drive my Camaro year round in MN.

Hard disagree. I've got a couple identical wagons (same model, year and everything) and one of them is optioned AWD while another is optioned FWD. The FWD one gets snow tires every winter and it's still the crap one of the bunch. I bet if I constructed some tire commercial-esque test where I compared handling on a literal ice rink it might win but in real world driving conditions (snow under 6" that's been churned into partial slush by the melting action of road salt and the last bunch of cars) it's still second place.

I am comparing some of the cheapest all-seasons on earth to some of the cheapest snow tires on earth in a vehicle platform that was renown at the time for having one of the most effective AWD systems so if I were to compare high dollar all seasons to high dollar snow tires in a vehicle known for having particularly bad AWD the results may be different.

Tire quality makes all the difference. If you value traction and safety, please don't skimp on tires. Buy the good ones, the difference in braking performance alone is massive.

There are plenty of "regular" cars with 4x4, and mini SUVs. There's even a little Fiat Panda 4x4. Just because the US market is dominated by large SUVs and trucks doesn't mean that there's something inherent about that.

Small 4x4 cars tend to cost way to much for what they provide (that transmission and two differentials take place!) and again, clearance under the car is very important to not get stuck (which can happen one-two weeks)