Wife's First Time Skiing: Big Bear, Snow Valley or Mountain High?

I'm having trouble deciding. I've been a skier my whole life. My wife has never skied and I want her to learn so we can go from time to time. I'm getting her a group lesson, her first outing to get her used to being on a mountain, etc., before we go to Mammoth.

Out of the three places, which would be best for a first-timer on a regular January weekend (Saturday on a non-holiday weekend)?

Mountain High (Wrightwood): I would go here to save money (sort of) but mainly because of time. But is it a sad introduction to the world of skiing? Or for one day of intro skiing, is the shorter drive from LA worth it over the other place?

Snow Valley (Running Springs/Arrow Bear): I forgot this existed and a lot of people on other threads mention Snow Valley as a great alternative to Big Bear (Snow Summit) and Mountain High for beginners. It looks like you save 45 minutes of driving than going all the way to Big Bear. But it still seems like you might get stuck in traffic. Anyone know if Snow Valley actually has less people on the weekend than Mountain High or Big Bear? That, in addition to it being cheaper, is why people suggest this place.

Big Bear/Snow Summit: Sort of the de-facto choice but I'm hearing horror stories of extreme drive delays up and down the mountain, traffic in Big Bear itself, long waits to get to the slopes via buses, lack of groceryetc. Seems like more of a headache than fun+learning. But I'm wondering if this will be the case for a random non-holiday weekend in January, or if that all happened because it was Christmas and NYE.

Bonus Question: Will all of these places be remotely as busy as they were at the end of Dec as it would be on a random Saturday at the end of Jan? I have a feeling that even a normal weekend, things get a little intense as So Cal people rush to the mountains (many of them just to see snow, tube, etc.)