Living here in Colorado, we haven't had a proper snow storm since I purchased my AWD Touring, but one of the very first things I did was to invest in a set of Yokohama Ice Guard winter tires.
The snow isn't the problem here, it's the other drivers.
You have a mixture of people who moved here from areas that never receive snow, and they simply do not know how to drive in snow, you have others who are driving around $85k Mercedes AMG cars with the stock summer tires in the middle of the storms, that simply don't understand why the can't get any traction (we know one of these people personally, and he's so thick headed, he won't accept the truth), and you have other people who are driving around on low quality tires, that may or may not be bald.
So, the snow tires are an extra insurance policy to help us from getting to know any of the above mentioned people, in a way we would rather not know them.
Heck, on Sunday night, we were coming back home, and on the main road, there were a couple cars that were just freshly in the ditch on the right side of the road, pointing the wrong direction.
As we were going down the same exact road they spun out on, we saw cars in the lanes next to (and at this point, well behind) us start sliding about, while we continued on without drama.
I always prefer not having anyone driving next to, or directly in front of me when driving in snow.
I've dodged way too many other people spinning out of control due to poor driving habits or tire choices to want to risk not having the best tires I can have on my car to avoid joining in on the fun.
BC.