I have an Outback with traction control, vehicle stability control, and (obviously) AWD and ABS.
And, I still use winter tires!
The bother of mounting and dismounting tire chains is…major. And, did you know that the maximum safe driving speed with tire chains is under 20 mph on most vehicles? Put it all together and you can see the superiority of simply buying winter tires.
I can understand your shock at finding out that you can’t use tire chains on this new vehicle, but if you had done some due diligence (such as reading the Owner’s Manual in a demo model) prior to purchase, you would not have this dilemma. Believe me–this is not the only AWD vehicle that does not permit the use of tire chains, so automatically assuming that tire chains would be okay on this vehicle is not realistic. That is why potential buyers need to do their due diligence prior to purchase.
Sorry!