Well, if time could be sped up while giving meaning to each of the 'seasons' as they were, it certainly could help the game in a number of ways. Currently, enemies respawn at breakneck paces every in-game day, which is not only ridiculous in realistic terms, but also makes defeating hordes of enemies harder to feel. Having months pass by with varying effects could help stabilize army distribution and growth, all the while being realer and giving value to the time frame of each season. In winter, tracking could be easier when there is snow, but vision or tracks would be obscured by snowstorms...cows become vital in ALL seasons, crops are extremely profitable, ect. Basically, time and place lends meaning to the various things you can build or collect.
GaGrin's suggestion about the Pirates! time system could be helpful, but I also suggest that the time-bar to still be implemented...perhaps upgraded, a little. I think that if the time bar is held down and a mouse button is clicked, an 'slice' of time passes by instantly. Say, the left button increases time by one hour, and the right button allows a day to go by. If a mouse button is held down instead, hours/days pass by for each second of real time. This should make skipping time easy to control in my opinion.