It seems to me that Jeep's strategy is to build somewhat inferior cars with lots of cool stuff for a lot less money than the Japanese SUV makers. They try to keep the Grand Cherokee cutting edge while keeping the prices lower than say a 4Runner or Pilot. So while a launch button seems pretty stupid, it seems like it's in line with the way in which Jeep keeps selling somewhat crappy cars.
We're on our 3rd Grand Cherokee. One was horrible, but we just sold our 1998 with 220K miles on it. The repairs were not bad at all on that one, while on the first one, repairs were regular and expensive. Perhaps it's inconsistency that is their problem. Just got a 2007, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
We live at 9000 ft where winter starts in September and continues through May with plenty of snow, wind and drifts. I haven't figured out a way around a high clearance 4WD/AWD vehicle. However, a launch button in my car would pretty much gather dust.