I was very happy with the winter performance of my RX330. Even in spirited driving, it was hard to make the vehicle lose its composure.
Did you by chance change your stock/factory tires to summer/performance tires? I had a BMW 328i before, and and there was an enormous difference between the stock performance tires, and real winter tires (I chose Dunlop Winter Sports). With the Dunlops, I was able to accelerate faster than most FWD's from a dead stop. On stock tires, I'd just roll at low speed while the traction control struggled to find grip.
Was your tire pressure unusually low? I've taken lessons at a skid-pad where I was able to force a sedan into a controlled skid. To trick the vehicles into losing traction early, the driving school would purposely deflate the tires. On dry pavement you want to large contact patch. On icy pavement, you want a smaller contact patch.