Tire chains are great in areas where they occasionally get deep snow (or you have to occasionally pass through areas with deep snow) but most of the winter the roads are fine and so winter tires would just get eaten up by driving on bare, warm pavement. Here, our roads are potentially shitty all the time from October/November through April. Even the last storm we got a week ago (got 8" of snow after all the rain in my area) took about 5-6 days for the roads to be completely clear again. As in, even with great snow tires I was driving in 4WD 90% of the time.

That said, I've had a few nights unexpectedly driving in freezing rain when I wished I had chains. It's something I keep meaning to buy for those rare "just in case" times. We're getting more freezing rain most years than we ever did 20-30 years ago, and that's when snow tires don't do much but chains would definitely help.