In real life Finland, making enough firewood to survive winter was a massive task. Even in current year my mother talked about how one of our elderly relatives wouldn't be able to live alone if it weren't for
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heat_pump replacing old fireplace. Just carrying the firewood from shed and maintaining fire can be a tedious task.
Realistic winter simply wouldn't work in my opinion and would've been primary reasons why if I had been in charge of developing this game, seasons wouldn't have been implemented, at least yet.