When I was doing a daily commute here in southeast Wisconsin, I had a round trip of about 85 miles. My FWD snow car was equipped with Nokian Hakkapeliitta Q tires. On a snowy day, if I could see pavement in the tracks on the highway I could confidently maintain a speed of about 55 mph. In rutted snow I could do about 40-45 per, assuming there wasn't a driver in front of me crawling along. Fortunately, my commute was usually in off hours with light traffic.
It may sound like I was overconfident or I'm exaggerating, but believe me, I wasn't, and I'm not. That's the kind of traction good snow tires can provide.
Years ago I owned an '87 Audi 4000 quattro because I thought AWD would be helpful for my drive to work and back. Over time I concluded that I didn't need AWD if I had good tires. The quattro had some interesting features, but it was something of a money pit and I never got more than 21 mpg from the 2.2 liter engine.
There's more going on with winter tires than the tread pattern, BTW. They generally have a softer rubber compound than all-season or summer types. That gives them better traction once the temps drop into the 40s and below, when the rubber on more general-purpose tires tends to stiffen up. So they can deliver enhanced performance in a cold rain in addition to snow or ice.