We may also be riding in different environments - my commute is in a pretty urban/not quite suburban area. The streets do get ploughed, not always 100% but I'm seldom riding on severe buildups of snow/ice/etc - if I'm in deeper snow it is usually freshly fallen. The ice to pavement ratio over the winter is high enough that I never tried studded tires, they would be wasted on me. For me though, the thinner tires have worked better than what I used before (knobbies that came with the bike and 26x2.0 IRC Metro), and they are not >really< thin like on a road bike (26x1.5). If the OP is going to be riding in snow/ice more of the time something else may work better for him. I was just trying to say, don't rule those thin tire bikes out just based on first impressions, they may work better than he thinks.
I'm about 70 miles west of you, but my ride is edge of city through open space to edge of city. I see a lot of drifting, and a lot of melt/freeze, and that is a lot easier to ride on studded tires. Most of the time the studded tires just add resistance, but I see enough black ice that they are worth it to me. Your point is valid though...try different things to see what works best for you is the message I see here.