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Well the other variable not getting mentioned is road salt... if you're going where roads are well salted that's a big difference.
My area tends to be really well salted. Snow removal is handled very well. Snow on the road with a little slush & ice but lots of salt is not real bad on non-studded tires.
I rarely have "Must ride X route in snow/ice". I can afford to adjust my route so that I stay on well salted/plowed areas. If I stay on those types of roads the # of times the studs are going to be the difference between crashing & not crashing are small.
If you live way out west in "big country" and they can't really salt stuff then things are going to be really different.
I do feel like the mountain bike is a lot better when things get really bad. I have rode across frozen lakes and such with my Nokians on my MTB, I would probably not try that on my gravel bike with the 45NRTH tires. Not that there is any real fitness benefit to riding across sheer ice. You're just doing it for the thrill of it, you can't put down any power.
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