if your answer is not "winch" then you simply do not have enough hands on experience in recovery situations.
i have seen people waste 40 minutes of time with a shovel, and maxtrax, and stacking rocks, to get absolutely nowhere and then finally use their winch and be freed in 3 minutes flat.
just have a winch and know how to use it.....
Bullpucky. I have seen more people damage more stuff because they jumped to pulling cable and didn't bother to properly prep the site for the recovery. The most common trying to winch themselves up, over, or out of something that was making the vehicle totally immoble in the first place. Examples I remember off the top of my head......
-Nearly ripping the front tire off a truck because the tire/knuckle was folding over into a rock. They just kept pulling till they broke the tie rod, steering box, CV joint, and a few other things.
-Destroying the a front bumper and a section of the frame. The front tires where tucked under a snow/ice shelf....kept pulling till the winch stalled and everything was bent
-Destroying a rear driveshaft that was trapped by a boulder.
I agree that when a winch works it works, but it can also create a ton of headaches.
They also don't work in every situation. I love having them. I love using them, but it isn't a guaranteed win.
Personally, I don't know why people are generally in a super big hurry doing recovery work. I have had cases where I needed to get a line on a vehicle VERY quickly to stabilize it, but I always promote a 'pause' when people start to rush and get flustered. That is when people get hurt.