I was thinking about it when I saw the belt drives coming, but it requires horizontal dropouts to tension the belt, and I'm concerned about what would happen if it got clogged with snow and ice. I'm betting the cog would fill up with snow and possibly snap the belt. No matter how much of a PITA chains can be sometimes, at least they've never stranded me. And I can buy new ones for $5.

In the summer I don't clean/lube my chain much anyway, but now that winter's here, I have to lube 2+ times a week. Last week I cleaned and lubed on Thursday, then rode Friday and didn't clean the chain; when I went out Sunday night to grab some stuff from the garage, I checked and the chain was frozen SOLID. No link would move at all. When I tried to backpedal it, the derailler hyperextended due to the non-flexing chain. It took me 10 minutes to break all the links free and work lube into them all.

I tend to go through chains in about 1800 miles, fwiw.