Given what has been going on the past couple of years i've been hearing antidotally speaking from friends and family, I think it is people just can't afford things like they once did. 

yeah wasn't that engine the really bad powerstroke from the era with 2 or 4 less cylinders? 

I think part of the issue is maybe car companies think people want to buy something that looks different because its an EV? When they actually want something that is similar to an ICE product design wise? I know the old frying pan Prius was styled like that to draw attention to it. I'm not a fan of Telsa's minimalistic way of styling...its very generic and reminds me of Ikea furniture.     The Mach E and Hyundai/Kia EV products are good examples of EV styling that doesn't stray too far from ICE products. The lack of the need for a grill can make EV's look like someone who has their eyebrows shaved off. But to put a "fake" or something stylistically similar to a grill can fix that and not screw up aero on them.     

Changing soft items like headlights or bumpers is a lot cheaper then making new stampings or having to retest crash cells if there is a major change to the passenger compartment. 

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Evolution rather than revolution but the key point being the platform must be on the right path to begin with.

Not meaning to disparage the 3-row BEV, Ford was trying to offer a  nicer looking than Tesla X competitor, the market was expecting more like an Explorer/Aviator like 3-row BEV…was the Rivian a missed opportunity?

No, I think he's talking about the class 3-4 LCF that had a tiny Mazda cab and an engine I would rather not talk about.

Personally don’t view longer life cycles as all bad.  Frequent updates can be good, but they also add costs which isn’t great.  

Yeah the way you and Explorerdude described it, it sounded like one of the least appealing looking designs Ford's made in a long time. I believe you said it looked a bit like a SD1 mixed with a model X, and then I believe ExplorerDude said it also looked like a fat Prius from some angles.    Definitely not an attractive design from the sound of things.    BTW I really like what you said to me about Ford taking styling inspiration from mid-engine cars in the front for EV designs. That idea itself sounds really cool if they execute it well on these affordable, smaller EV products.    I forgot you said that, but that has me even more excited to see the styling on these CE1 products if that idea carried over.