Escape yes but not Edge.  Starting in 2011 with the Sport model with the 3.7L v6 and later the ST model with the 2.7L ecoboost it did appeal to enthusiasts and owners were passionate.  Not all of them but quite a few.  What was missing was a hybrid option.  Had they done a c2 hybrid edge and Nautilus in 2019 and kept a performance option of some kind I don't think it would have been killed.     Likewise I think a rwd mustang suv will be a hit albeit at lower volumes.

The other side of that is the Escape is/was a good product, but it wasn't "cheap" enough for the North American market in the grand scheme of things-it was over engineered for the EU market where they sell at a higher average selling price. I'm guessing Ford didn't have that issue with the Mazda based models.    Costs didn't get under control till the post 2020 refresh when people where bitching about how cheap it felt, even though the Bronco Sport "looked" cheaper, but the materials/look are just about identical between the two on my experience with both the products. 

So I'll tell you two stories about "affordability" My old man got out of the Army in 1969 and bought a Pontiac Firebird Sprint. I want to say it was a leftover or used car at the time. I found that a 67 went for $3837 in a review. That is roughly $36K in todays dollars...or what roughly the MSRP is for an Ecoboost Mustang today. He sold if a few years later for a Ventura because they needed something more practical since my sister was born.  So lets fast forward almost 30 years. I get out of the Army and buy a 1998 Mustang GT brand new. I got my dad's A plan price (can't remember what it was exactly) but I think the MSRP was $19K. I was working part time (was going to school) and was in the National Guard at the time to help pay for car insurance, which was insane, which was $1500 a year or something (I got quotes for $5K at the time!), I gave up a lot at the time and lived with my parents for a couple years after getting out. I "struggled" because I wanted the car-but I had make trade offs to keep it. I winded up getting rid of it in 2002 for an SVT Focus because I wanted something that didn't feel like a RWD retread of my 1986 Escort GT I had in high school. Yet again I gave up other things to have that car. It turned out to be a giant POS, so I sold in 2006 for a 2006 Mustang GT. At that time I was finally making decent money and my insurance actually went down.    As for your rants about boring CUVs-what it boils down to is the VAST majority of the car buying public overbuy a vehicle because its a nice to have vs a need to have. I grew up in the era of the station wagon and sedan as a child.  Sedans are fine, but what it boils down to is hey I can't fit an over the oven microwave into it (true story-I had to ask my girlfriend now wife to help me out to get one because it didn't fit into my Mustang-she had a Chevy Trax at the time) or some other large object into it, but if I spend say $5K more on a CUV (or an extra ~$100 bucks a month on a 60 month note) I can do almost anything I want with it. I think that is the reason why actual buyers gravate to them. People tend to go the route of lease resistance and the other products will only sell on price alone because most buyers are only buying them because that is all they can afford because they have a perceived "major" shortcoming, if they are forced too. That just screams to me "not a passion vehicle" in the eyes of Ford. 

Like all we offer young buyers these days is 37 different compact crossovers in white, black, and grey. When they aren't excited about them, we say it's because younger people aren't into cars. I say it's because there aren't many new affordable cars worth getting excited about.   I'm actually reluctantly hopeful for the future. One of the biggest things that killed off coupes, sports cars, sedans, etc was their inability to grow with the ever increasing need to be more. Carry more stuff, carry more people, etc. Between the 90s to now, people were convinced they needed three rows and a lot of cargo space because large families were more prominent.    Well none of us young people are getting married and having kids lol, nor do they ever plan to. So there's really not that need. You don't need an suv if you have no kids. I think buyers are realizing that more, and I think car buyers are realizing that more. That's why you're seeing brands like Ford bringing back passenger cars. Because as millennials and Gen z start to make up a larger and larger portion of the car buying public, I believe you're gonna see sedan, hatchback, and coupe sales start to increase, and large SUV and truck sales start to dwindle. 

I've suspected that both the Escape and the Edge are victims at least partially of the "death to jellybean SUV's" mentality at Ford, too. While both have been solid products, neither invokes actual emotion. Nobody was rushing out to buy hats and shirts that proclaim their love of their... Edge or Escape. I'm in that boat myself. I've bought merch for just about every model I sell, and certainly for my Maverick, but never in three Escapes have I bought anything that proclaims my ownership of an Escape. Edges are kinda the same. Great vehicles, you'll have people who buy them over and over, but they're not passion products.

I have a different perspective on this, and that's the fact that there has always been a significant portion of the public that doesn't enjoy driving. It just wasn't an option 50 years ago, not really. If 50 years ago, people had the same ability to pull a device out of their pocket and instantly order a car to pick them up, a lot of people back then wouldn't have been driving either.    I mean, keep in mind we're already seeing a ton of car enthusiasts who are gen z and millennials, and that's with a new car market that's incredibly bland in many respects. Heck, gen z and millennials like cars so much that they were the first to prioritize cars over relationships. So the passion is there.    It's just if you were 20 in 1969 your choices for a fun affordable car were coupes and sports cars galore. These days if you're 20 and want an affordable and fun new car, you don't have a ton of options. It's a gr86 that's the size of a shoebox. Even the mustang Ecoboost with options is starting to become unaffordable. I've seen some in the 40s or even low 50s. A young person can't afford that. 

We had a low of $2.55 87 E0 at the end of February and shot up to $3.29 in 3 increments, and as of 3/9 went down to $3.15.  

I had the Shaker 500 in my 2006 Mustang GT and it was just ok-I find that the Ford audio is overly aggressive with pulling bass/sound as you turn up the volume.   I upgraded the audio in my Bronco-I went with 8in sub in back using the Ford sub enclosure I bought and modified. Replaced all the speakers with Kicker speaker and two Amps. I got a custom wiring harness that was plug and play and was able to install everything in about a day.   Only issue I've had was I blew out 2 subs, but that was my fault for not having it set up properly. 

I dunno there seems to be such a generation divide with younger adults (Under 20) that having a car isn't exactly high on the priority list, esp. with parents seemingly enabling it at times. I have nieces and a nephew that are all under 25 and they all drive, but they don't seem to be that excited about it either. I haven't seen them really interested outside of it being just a form of transportation.   I don't think how the baby boomers ran with the Mustang when it first came out will translate the same to Gen Z, since the world is completely different. 

I know unpopular option, but the Edge was replaced (in different ways) by the Bronco, Mustang Mach E and to a lesser extent the post 2020 Escape. I'm also guessing that the EV that was expected to come from Oakville would have also fell into that range at the upper end. There was no one for one replacement-but the price/size segment was filled by other products that had their own pluses and minuses.    The other issue is, how popular is the 2 row CUV market? I did a quick look and getting the info parsed out is a pain in the ass-the one site I looked at has the Explorer and Bronco Sport listed as "mid sized" CUVs. I'd personally put the Explorer as the start of the "large" CUV range and the Bronco Sport on the small CUV size range.    Sub 180in OL is small   Plus 192in OL is large   anything inbetween that would fall in the midsized range.