Why do I need a impact driver to drive screws into wood?

Though an impact wrench used to be almost always pneumatic and what we used to think of them, an impact wrench has an anvil (typically 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 or 3/4 inch square) that goes into sockets, an impact driver has a hex bit to accept bits. It is now common to mean a/c plug in electric, battery or pneumatic when talking about impact wrenches.