is it kinda like the equivelent of a sport shift sort of?

When you hit the ECT Snow button, it lets the transmission know that you want to pull out in a higher gear for better traction. It will pull out in 2nd gear instead of first gear to reduce the possibility of wheel spin. The Highlander also has VSC and TRAC so it is unlikely for the wheel to spin anyway. So...no it does not act as a sport shift.

i dont think so because it is traction control

actually no,

the ECT is electronically controlled transmission
in ECT i the i stands for intelligent actually in snow mode the wheel slips resulting in power loss the transmission adjusts the power output and the differential to provide limited slip and more torque which will however give you torque but low speed in sand mode there is too much friction between the tires hence torque output is tripled to keep the vehicle moving this results in 1/3 the speed as torque is *3
you really need to learn how gear ratios work and how a tranny works to understand

No you wont go faster but you may slip more.The stock 3.0 v6 is not very powerful,you will probably have 0 to 60 in 8.5 sec.all wheel dr. hybrids will do 6.5 a big difference. good luck!

no you will not. the ECT is a traction control system to reduce the amount of tire spin in low traction situations such as snow. it has no effect on speed. besides, why do you want to go fast in a Highlander? it has an electronic governor to limit top speed anyway, not to mention the fact that SUV's in general are unstable in emergency maneuvers

It's not about shifting, IF it's just slip control then it prevents you from spinning your tires aimlessly when there is no traction. Going fast is a relative term anyways, any car can go fast, the question is how long will it take for it to get there. So yeah, if you're willing to burn some rubber then switch it off, you might have slightly better acceleration and better grip on corners, but you'll probably also experience wheelspin, especially on corners. You'd have to test that tho. I don't have a Toyota myself, but I've heard that it is not a slip, but as you have said a button that tells your transmission to shift at different pts. In that case from what I've find out about it is that the tranny will start out in 2nd gear, as that would be beneficial in snow since the wheels won't get as much power and cause a spin, plus every other shift points will be higher up on the rpm range. It's really confusing how there is no documentation on this! But if this tranny thing is true, then you'd be getting more out of each gear if you used the ECT as it will use the powerband available in each gear to the max before shifting. The 2nd gear start would slow you down a lot tho, so it would probably be only beneficial once you get past it.