It is not just ignorance, it is to some extent self defense. To the best of my current knowledge, Firestone/Bridgestone does not make a Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) tire for winter use, so your gas mileage will suffer on pavement with their tires. The Firestone dealers know this and don't wnat to hear complaints from hybrid owners about FE.
Have you considered these?
Link =
http://www.michelinman.com/tires/win...acy-alpin-pa3/
Link =
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....macy+Alpin+PA3
This tire is a winter version of the Energy S8, which is one of the two OEM tires on the TCH (or was in '07, I heard that Toyota may switch to the Primacy MXV4 in the '08 models sometime this year becasue Michelin is phasing out the Energy line and replacing with the Primacy one.)