Just to add some more context since this discussion has expanded beyond the original question, I got a lot of learnings after getting stuck in the mud that changed how I felt about many recovery strategies that I had previously derived solely from reading.
1) Mud gets on everything really fast. I was on a work trip, but it could just as well have been a recreational trip, and I learned that even a small glop of mud could ruin clothes, gear, your schedule, and create a secondary cleaning task that is hard to handle in the middle of the wilderness. Avoiding the mud really slows down all recovery activities, from where you step to what you touch to finding little baggies and sheets of plastic for things to wiping down your door handles, etc, etc, etc. Once things are set up, it's important that stuff works fast, because a lot of time may have already gone by, and a lot of energy already expended, and more time and energy will be needed to put things away in a clean and secure manner to allow the trip to go on productively or pleasantly.
2) Accessing recovery gear and the vehicle itself can get complicated. For example, I would not have easily been able to remove my spare tire from under the vehicle based on how I was stuck. That would have been a big and likely very messy task in itself.
3) Hi-Lift would have been useless to raise the vehicle in the mud I was in without a large platform to support it. But inflatable jack did work. Exhaust method of inflation too slow. I tried that first, and the sun would have gone down below the horizon long before inflation. Onboard air did work, but even that took over 20 minutes, because the lack of hard ground required it to be inflated to its maximum.
4) The soft shackles got cluttered with mud and added to the cleaning. The metal one was much quicker and more pleasant to use.
5) All gear stored in textile bags created a secondary cleaning nightmare upon returning home.
Based on all these learnings and my own personal needs and priorities, I've decided that for solo trips into heavy mud areas, having a rear winch either preconnected to the hitch-mount or stored on my rear bumper somewhere, along with a Pull-pal-type device also stored externally on the vehicle, is something that will help me best on the rare future occasions, if any, that I get stuck in a similar away and need to go out backwards. I'm also relocating my inflatable jack to the rear bumper or maybe a rooftop hardcase if possible. I'm keeping some soft shackles as lightweight extras, but my quick-grab core recovery kit will consist of metal items that can be instantly wiped down. I will also have a couple vinyl tarps that can be thrown down on the ground, wet wipes that can be accessed without dirtying a bunch of other items in the way of the wipes, plastic bags for sullied textile items, etc, etc.
Back to the winch power line, I love both the routing ideas offered here and the idea of a cable that can be connected on demand. Trying to decide which approach would be best in my case.
