I am not an attorney, but I can tell you what we did, and it's been working since 2012. We started out a lot like you. There was a subdivision, (actually, there were four, all on connected roads,) and all the deeds said the grantees would be members of the XXXXXX XXXXXX Road Association. But there wasn't one. Then one of the developers hired an attorney who set up the XXXXXXX XXXXXX Owners' Association as non-profit. (Note the difference in the name.) It started off with 25 of the 35 Owners meeting together and paying their dues. But within a few years there were only a dozen people paying. Most of the officers quit, and there was not enough in the treasury to pay the plow contractor.
Then the new person who had had the office of President thrust on them discovered that we were supposed to have paid a fee to the State every year, and it had not been paid since the first year. We had no funds to pay the back dues plus penalties. So we scrapped the non-profit and re-formed as Statutory, naming it what it said in the deeds, and being careful to follow all the initial requirements - having a Notary call the first meeting, notifying the owners of every benefited property, having the agenda and proposed budget go out with the Notice, etc. Thirteen years later, after further subdivision, we now have 55 members and almost all of them pay.
So my recommendation would be to go ahead and form a Statutory association, being careful to fulfill all the requirements. You can always also form as a non-profit later if you find you need to, but at least you will be able to get started and pay your plow contractor.