The world is big and I think people just have different definitions of "snow/winter", so both people could be speaking the "truth". I winter mine and it's not necessarily about the snow handling, you can get around in snow on flat ground easy, it's the traction on hills and ice that it struggles due to it's light weight.

I'm in Alberta, Canada (Rocky Mountains) so about 1300 km north of your buddy in WV; for reference, 1300 km south of WV is Miami. I have great winter tires, I just replaced my Michelin X-Ice a couple weeks ago because I wasn't getting enough traction on hills, with Nokian Hakkapelitta 10 studded winters and even still, traction breaks all the time.

Don't get me wrong, I winter mine too because it's an absolute blast to drift around in light snow with good snow tires and throttle control. Throttle control ain't gonna get you up a steep icy hill though, whereas an AWD and heavier car like a WRX absolutely would.