I wasn't excited about either pack, to be honest, but Eco Lifestyle interested me more and for the sole fact it had the voting system. I really thought it had potential, but that whole pack introduced nothing but awful bugs and glitches for me, and the votes are just plain annoying. (Who thought it would be a good idea to have a voting feature where Sims come to your lot and take everything?) The pack ended up being a bigger letdown than I had expected it to be. I don't even find the world to be that appealing and only use it for the apartments it came with.
Ironically enough, Snowy Escape didn't have my interest at all and I was completely against buying it, but I've now actually come to really enjoy it and the stuff it came with. The world is really beautiful and detailed and is probably in my top favorite places for my Sims to live now. I do believe it has its downs and some things are lacking. I also do agree with a lot of people who say its themes are recycled or too similar to certain themes and features in previous packs, but overall it hasn't really let me down.
Luckily for me, my girlfriend and I share the game and because she wanted both of these packs really bad, I got to experience them too. One didn't work out, sure, but the other definitely did and I probably wouldn't have discovered a new beautiful world otherwise.