The key was good drivers. Now that they'll give a DL to anyone with a pulse and a crayon, the skills have gone right in the toilet. Watching people drive in the recent snowstorms puts a cherry on top of that discussion - coming down the 35/115 a few days ago I counted no less than 6 cars in the ditch or the median between Peterborough and Orono, and one tractor trailer upside down in the rhubarb at the merge. Yeah, the roads were not great, but for anyone actually driving at a sane pace, with a shred of skill, they were totally passable.
Anyhow, as for crutches...meh, I think most people are beyond that now, including enthusiasts. ABS is refined to the point where it just works all the time and benefits the people who still remember to steer in an emergency vs just target fixating and driving right into whatever they're trying to avoid. Traction control and stability control systems make RWD cars behave like they're on rails, better than FWD cars of old even - going back as far as my wife's old Chrysler 300 (RWD) and to her current day Ioniq5 (also RWD), the stability control and traction control are insanely good - I could NOT make either of those cars oversteer, understeer, or have the back end come around when those systems are engaged. Without doubt they've saved tens of millions of accidents from both novice and in-over-their-head enthusiasts as well. "Launch Control" is something that's even actively embraced by the enthusiast crowd it seems.
