Two prime reasons the car died were the GM engineers did not want FWD hence much of the cost overruns.
The second was the choice of Ford keeping with the Fox platform Mustang vs moving to the Ford Probe that originally was the new FWD Mustang. GM responded to keep RWD soon after.
The AWD was real. It was used on a GM 80 based GTO Prototype that was shown at Medowbrook in the 90’s and not seen since. Word is it may still be in hiding at the tech center per Don Keefe. It used a 4th gen like nose from the Firebird.
There is still much never spoken here as there are still a lot of people not wanting to speak on this era. Pontiac broke a lot of rules beyond the Fiero.
Auto history is made up of many what if’s and thank Gods that lead to many good and bad things.