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Actually, the super-sticky low-life racing tires are slicks, and tend to do poorly under wet conditions. The best overall wet traction comes from "conventional" (and not especially expensive) three season tires like the Dunlop SP Sport 01, which are excellent in the wet, excellent in the dry, and which have reasonable tread life. Nothing exotic, just not compromised for the specific purpose of making the tire mildly snow-capable.
OK racing tires might have been an exaggeration, although most autocross-style tires are grooved and street-legal. The SP Sport 01 seems to come in limited sizes and doesn't seem like a choice that most people would make for a family sedan like a Toyota Camry.
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I think you previously have referred to the tires that are layered, like the Bridgestone Blizzaks, so that as they wear, they transform from winter tires to all season tires. The striped-not-layered treads, such as in the Michelin Pilot A/S and the Goodyear Eagle ResponsEdge, are a new phenomenon, but, OTOH, not a new phenomenon in that they are just another point on the spectrum of compromise. One could argue that they are not "really" all season tires, because half of the tread does not have an all season tread compound, but then it becomes a matter of semantics.
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There are some tires that don't make as much a compromise as you imply there has to be (the RE960AS for example) yet seem to perform acceptably in moderate winter conditions. The folks at the tire manufacturers seem to be working hard devloping new technologies that make an all-season tire acceptable.
There are a lot of dollars to be made there, as P.T. Barnum proved.
First - I was trying to describe a tire with multiple "zones" of different compounds. It not really a gimmick but a creative and effective solution to meet a demand. There are a lot of things that can be done to improve braking, but you don't see family cars with big 'ol cross-drilled and slotted Brembos. People want the offerings now available in all-seasons, and nobody is a sucker for carefully selecting a tire that suits their needs. There are several all-season tires that do outperform comparable 3-seasons in wet traction while also having the longer treadlife and smoother ride that most people are looking for. In most cases, these 3-season tires cost more and the large majority of what's out there doesn't have the longevity of most all-season tires.
In the end why worry about how a tire is labelled/marketed rather than results. I've used 3-season tires before (Dunlop SP Sport 9000, Pirelli P6000, and Yoko AVS ES100). They're OK but frankly my choices for tires meeting my needs (in a particular size) were limited and the 3-seasons were better choices. Right now one particular all-season tire meets my needs for performance, cost, and longevity.