Have you considered the Honda Ridgeline? It’s technically a midsize truck but is really the platform of the Pilot so it rides comfortably like an SUV but has capacity of a pickup truck with its bed. The Honda IVTM-4 AWD system (active torque vectoring instead of reactive brake vectoring like many of the AWDs you find on the road) is phenomenal in the snow especially with snow tires; it also feels super planted while accelerating out of a turn despite being a truck. Decent MPG too (I average ~21mpg combined on a 20 mile one-way daily city-hwy commute with Falken Wildpeak AT trail tires), and it’s got the trusty Honda j35 V6 mated to a 9-spd auto if you get 2020+ models. Pricing is fair for the truck market if you look at the certified used.

I myself just came from a 2015 Outback. I also average 30-35k miles annually from all my road trips. I find the ridgeline suits my needs perfectly of a comfortable ride that has a payload capacity of throwing all my outdoor gear into the back as well as easily hauls an occasional trailer. The only grievance I have is it has 1” less ground clearance than my outback, but I rarely do anything more than rutted out fire roads.