There is another question, should the German accept the shift in power, including the change in the air battle, and use the force of Manstein to defense instead of trying to rescue Stalingrad. The USSR has new capability force that hit hard in both Saturn campaign and against Manstein force.
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They had to make a show of strenght to force the soviets to divert more troops to keep the pocket closed. Retreating back without serious fight would doom not only the 6th Army, but also the armies in the Caucasus, since the land bridge, connecting East Ukraine with the Caucasus, between the Sea of Azov and the massive soviet concentration around Stalingrad wasn't strongly defended.
Executing Wintergewitter probably weakened Saturn much more than anything the same troops could have done further East. Who knows how the offensive would have ended if the 2nd Guards army was there. Moreover, since it was cancelled quickly, Hoth managed to get his divisions away without too much beating. Not intentional of course, but this attack served well as a decoy.
And not what I said. The forces encircling Stalingrad, the inner ring of the Soviet push, were actually less than the troops encircled. The Soviets underestimated the amount of troops they had encircled and so the direct covering force was comparatively small to allow more forces to push on.