I had Pirelli Scorpion winters on for their fourth winter and got a puncture in one in an unrepairable spot and, since they were almost done, ended up replacing all four. These were a good performance tire and over their life they were really good in the dry and wet but their snow performance was lacking.
We'd had less snowy winters over the last few years and so thought they were decent.

I went with the R3 SUV tires this time and they are far superior in the snow. They're very soft and do feel a bit squirrely in the dry. This week we've had 15cm of snow almost every day (damn you lake effect!) and I found them to be far superior to the Pirellis in those conditions.

If you're in an area that doesn't experience a lot of snow, I would agree that a more performance oriented tire would be better, but if you get snow like we do, I would sacrifice some dry pavement solidity for snow performance.