A little historical context here, at least regarding the middle third of the east coast of the USA.

Cabbage is a cool weather crop and stores well. Spring grown cabbage is not as flavorful and also much more prone to be attacked by cabbage moths, etc. Fall grown cabbage is tastier, and also less likely to be beset by pests. Fall cabbage could be kept for long periods in root cellars. Cabbage is cheap in the grocery store year round, and especially in fall and winter. The one and only fresh and raw veggie available during a good part of winter for many folks on the East Coast who by necessity, grew their own.

I confess I have an excellent modern, high-end recipe for chopped coleslaw from my Los Angeles sis-in-law which I will try to dig out and share from my disorganized baggies of recipe notes. Involves chopped instead of shredded cabbage, gorganzola broken into small chunks, walnuts (or maybe pecans), etc. Delicious, but while it is called coleslaw, I think of it as a cabbage salad and not a coleslaw recipe.