I think the maintenance card gets overplayed w/ SS. I ride geared as well as SS (I have 2 of each style bike) and do almost as much maintenance on my SS as I do my geared. When it rains and the bike gets caked with road scum and the chain sounds like sand-paper, I clean the gears and toss the chain into a jar of mineral spirits. Once the chain is completely dry, I relube, reinstall, and go about my business. If it takes longer than a day or I am lazy, I ride another bike the next day/week.

I love SS bikes, but have no exp riding with them in the snow. I shift often when I have gears and am just as happy to ride in a single gear when on my SS bikes. You are never in the ideal gear on a SS bike but there is slightly less to clean when riding a SS. Its a PITA to clean all the c-rings and der bits on a geared bike,.... but the frequency that parts gets cleaned/re-lubed is more dependent on need rather than geared vs SS.

My commute ranges from 18 miles RT to 60 miles RT depending on my rout. I commute on my SS 90% of the time. I have 2500 miles on my SS bikes this year and have done flatish centruies on my SS road bike. So it can be done, but the "fun" of SS/FG I think is, as another poster adequately stated, subjective.