Claustrophobic is my middle name. I can't sleep in tents or mummy bags. I had a two person tent. If I still had it I wouldn't go out there. And when I mention this to other hammockers they are surprised as well because it's true that some hammocks are claustrophobic. The Hennessy was okay, the Warbonnet is better. A simple gathered end is not.

High winds can be managed by site selection, and snow is less of a worry than heavy ongoing rain when you are using a tarp.

re: tarps that look like tents - this is part of the appeal of a hammock system. that's not a tent, it has no floor, but many winter tarps can be staked to the ground to provide more coverage or less as desired, and that flexibility works pretty darn well with very little additional weight. This helps a LOT with first item above, claustrophobia, as a couple of poles/sticks and you have a porch to look out from when you wake up in the morning. And can anyone stand up in a tent?

The bottom line is unless one actually uses an item requiring a bit of a learning curve more than a few times you don't really understand how to use it. This would apply to making and using your own stoves, IMO, or tarps (not tarptents), or hammocks. I gave up on making stoves after one try - it wasn't worth my time to develop that skill set. It's more than worth it to me to use the hammock because it's what keeps me hiking the next day instead of lying around trying to motivate aching joints to work and not wanting to move because I haven't slept a wink. Better to sleep soundly than not.

I can't speak to the weight of winter hammock setups - I am not about to go out with a Titanium Goat stove, hammock hut, six quilts and snow camp in below zero weather; I go out to be out, and sitting in a hut doesn't qualify, in my book, even if it's -5 outside and 72 inside the hut. I think some people do it for the cool factor. But there are plenty of gear nuts who go arctic camping without hammocks, too.