Everything is a trade off and investment that only you can decide. I "saved" a bunch when Goodyear Prorated my Assurance WeatherReady's and I got new winter tires. I then paid a couple times even with roadforce to try and get them smooth, never quite went away. Not enough issues to replace before worn out and they worked well in the winters for me. I won't get them again. It was so nice putting my Pirelli's back on for nice and smooth ride. My son just did 500+ miles in it and said the same thing.
The discounted money I paid on prorate and then paid afterward would have covered a new full set of Michelin X-ice snow or Viking Contact 7's without the GY interventions.
The road noise and decent in slush might be more conflicting issues. I haven't seen many tests for slush. Snow/ice yes. Wet traction and Snow traction often require different things, not sure how slush plays there.
Did you have any issues with what was on it for those attributes (except tread life)? My wife is very happy with the Defender LTX M/S on her Pilot but might be too stiff with an XL rating for you. If she's happy, I know I made a good choice. Spent a but more but if she hates them it would not be worth the couple hundred potential savings.
You need to watch a bunch more videos/reviews on Tire Rack or at
https://www.tire-reviews.com/ to gauge your own comparison.