One advantage would be that the inhabitants of such a region would typically be superior. I am speculating that such a people who lived in this region for a long time would exhibit K-selected organism traits such as high IQs, hard workers, the ability to plan things for the long term, strong care for children, AND strong loyalty to the in-Group to name a few. Such traits would have been necessary for a people to survive in this region.
So to sum it up, your neighbors would be better people than the people who live in warmer regions.
Perhaps struggling to survive only achieves survival while when survival comes easy you can devote your time to other endeavors, like improving the quality of life.
Then again, necessity is the mother of invention, so... I dunno.