snowbird advice needed

Obviously some disagree with me but this makes no sense to me at all. I wouldn't treat our house any differently during winter absence than I would summer absence and at the very least our insurance requires the house be checked periodically while we're away anyway. We do it for friends, they do it for us, it's just no biggie to drop by every 2 or 3 days to make sure all is well, collect any papers, flyers, mail, etc, walk through the place to make sure nothing has changed. In our most recent case something did change for friends of ours ... their adult son had dropped by their house but couldn't get the front door locked again. He texted them 3000 miles away, they texted me, and I popped over for a look - indeed the lock was shot and it took me 3 hrs of disassembly, a run to Home Depot for a new lock, and installation of the new lock. That was my favour to them, I have no doubt they'd do exactly the same for us regardless of the time of year ... just turn the heat down, turn off the water, make sure there are a few lights on timers, and walk away happily known the place will be taken care of. Winterizing an RV is one thing but I can't imagine winterizing a stick house when there's such a simple alternate solution available.