AWD systems can and do get used offroad pretty often. They’re not quite as good as 4WD in some specific situations
The moment that you have one wheel spinning with AWD, you are stuck. One wheel in the air due to a heavily rutted fire road? Stuck. One wheel on wet ice on the road? Stuck.
AWD is great for transient traction conditions, like roads that are partially snowy with patches of exposed asphalt.
If you have an AWD system with fully open differentials all the way around, yes. But many of them (most of the modern ones?) are more advanced than that, with a limited slip differential, at least for the center diff. And pretty much all the modern ones, as far as I know of, can do tricks like automatically applying brakes on the slipping wheel to direct more torque to the other three.
A decent AWD system definitely will get you through more stuff than simple 2WD. Not as good as true 4WD in some situations, but AWD can still be very useful offroad.
The moment that you have one wheel spinning with AWD, you are stuck. One wheel in the air due to a heavily rutted fire road? Stuck. One wheel on wet ice on the road? Stuck.
AWD is great for transient traction conditions, like roads that are partially snowy with patches of exposed asphalt.
If you have an AWD system with fully open differentials all the way around, yes. But many of them (most of the modern ones?) are more advanced than that, with a limited slip differential, at least for the center diff. And pretty much all the modern ones, as far as I know of, can do tricks like automatically applying brakes on the slipping wheel to direct more torque to the other three.
A decent AWD system definitely will get you through more stuff than simple 2WD. Not as good as true 4WD in some situations, but AWD can still be very useful offroad.