I bought my 2nd CJ-7 with the same idea in mind. I live in Florida, where we have plenty of State and National forests to go trail riding in, as well as the beach which is only an hour away. The new Jeep has ProRock HP 60's, atlas, full cage, etc. and is an automatic, which I figured would get my wife driving a little more. The fact that I usually end up breaking something every time I go out of state to wheel the original Jeep with Dana 44's and Dana 300, also played heavily into the idea of upgrading to the new Jeep.
When I first brought it home I drove it around town a few times. In the past few years I have trailered it to several off road parks and have beat on it pretty hard. I keep it tagged and insured in case I want to drive it around town, but haven't really done that very often. I run 37 inch sticky Treps when out of state and don't want to run around town on the road with them, but at the same time am too lazy to switch them back out after I return from a trip, so the Jeep just sits under the carport and doesn't get driven much. I also made the mistake of putting full hydro on this Jeep and that makes it sketchy to drive over 35-40 mph on the road. I had hydro assist on my old Jeep, but figured with this one I would probably end up 4-linking it one day and didn't want to limit moving the front axle forward with the hydro assist. Now I often wish I would have just done the hydro assist because I probably won't end up 4-linking this one. I kind of like the "cool factor" of following the buggies up obstacles in my old CJ on leaf springs and 37's.
We recently bought an RV, so now the plan is to buy my wife a 4 door Rubicon she can drive everyday, can be towed behind the RV on vacations to the mountains, and can be used for light wheeling here in Florida. After we put a lift kit and wheels and tires on it we might change our mind and end up wheeling it harder and constantly having to repair/upgrade it too. It seems like the cycle never ends!