I'll give you my rampant speculation, based on owning a prior 4WD SUV. With my older vehicle (a 2005 Mitsubishi Montero LTD), it was 2WD at the rear, unless you moved the selector lever to one of the 4WD options, and then the front wheels would lock in and you were in 4WD mode. If you then switched back out of 4WD, the front wheels were still connected but "free spinning". So here's where I'm going with this...
With the recent snow we've had here in Calgary, I selected the "snow" driving mode in my 2020 Canadian Telluride. Based on how the vehicle handles at that point, my belief is that though the vehicle is AWD in description, in regular operation I suspect the front wheels are free spinning, but once you engage one of the "driving condition" choices, they become locked in. I notice that my acceleration is affected somewhat when this happens. It's noticable. And very much like how my older SUV behaved when the front hubs were engaged or not.
Love the vehicle, but still getting used to some of the "features". Like how it automatically does certain things in colder weather, like turning on the heating in the steering wheel and seats, and then shuts it off after things have warmed up for a few minutes. Ditto with the "auto engine stop/start" feature. If it's really cold, it appears to automatically get disabled.... which is a good thing. I just wish I could get rid of that feature completely, or at least choose the default setting to be off instead of enabled. lol