Agree 100%. And driving in snow takes an extra acuteness acquired from years of experience. Your hands on the steering and the feel coming up from the seat into your arse can give you fair warning that you are approaching the limits of control. And some features on new vehicles can be a hinder that rather than help.
AWD or 4WD is a definite plus.
If you have an automatic disable OD.
Snow or good all season tires.
ABS is 50/50 like/dislike.
I turn OFF traction control. I experimented with it and I do NOT like how it reduces power. Sometimes you WANT wheel spin.
I think that in snow all those driver assist features can be a hinderance. Yes, they may keep you out of trouble
sometimes, but what they won't do is let you learn to feel where the edge of control is by the seat of your pants. Feeling minor losses of control in snow teaches you to back off and become more progressive in everything you do until you've learned to stay inside the envelope where everything does stay in control.
Like you I'm 50/50 on ABS - a good one like I have on my current car will provide some feedback without snatching control away, a bad one like I had on my late 80s vintage Honda Prelude will let go of the brakes entirely when it's on a surface where some slip is inevitable. With the Honda one, if you were driving on gravel you had no brakes at all and had to get any stopping power from engine braking. I discovered that 'feature' on driveways, I'm glad I didn't find it out on a gravel filled escape lane on a hill.