Actually, a lift hurts you on a hill climb...the higher center of gravity biases weight rearwards when going up hill.

A longer wheelbase typically helps to climb by distributing the weight bias.

This can overwhelm the lockered tires limits of adhesion, so both tires spin. this can make the rear crab out, which on a hill, puts you off camber pretty quickly if you are not careful.

Driver control makes more of a difference off road than you can imagine. A good driver can usually do more with a stocker than a tyro can with a lifted lockered monster.

I jeeped for years, more than I've X'd, by decades...so I'm pretty familiar with the strengths and limitations.

A stock wrangler can pretty much kick a stock X's ass on most trails. The X's advantages are more apparent if you had to bring stuff with you other than repair tools.