AWD issue

The two systems are not related. All-wheel-drive, which is not the same as four-wheel-drive, puts some driving force to both axles. In slippery conditions, you may have only one front tire and one rear tire pulling while the other two are spinning. Traction control is an add-on feature that utilizes the anti-lock brake system. When those two tires are spinning, the traction control system applies the brakes to just those two wheels, so power has to shift to the two tires that have some traction. Many years ago we used to do the same thing by lightly applying the brake pedal when a rear tire was spinning on ice. That got me unstuck more than once.

Many all-wheel-drive vehicles did not even come with anti-lock brakes, so they could not have traction control systems. You can also have traction control on front-wheel-drive cars that are not all-wheel-drive. I found those to be real effective at the dealership when trying to get moving on a steeply-inclined parking lot in winter weather.