Hyundai has been building even larger Atkinson V6 engines for years.  And Stellantis also.  Whether it made sense for Ford with 3.3L, which I believe is in reference to Explorer hybrid, is anyone’s guess, but that doesn’t preclude larger Atkinson engines in future.  As can be seen in data below for Hyundai Palisade, power loss due to Atkinson cycle is manageable.   Ford is far from infallible on technical decisions as proven by previous product issues, plus there could have been other reasons including financial that limited Explorer Hybrid from getting an Atkinson upgrade.  Only suggesting you keep an open mind that just because Ford hasn’t done it yet doesn’t mean larger Atkinson can’t or shouldn’t be done in future.  

I like how practical the interior is.     

That is a pretty rich take   From Wikipedia:     If the market is being satisfied by product that doesn't need any real updates done to it, why are you going to change it? I'm pretty sure it is very profitable for Ford and they don't have much competition.    As for the Transit being a failure, its not going by sales numbers:   Calendar year U.S. sales 2014 20,448[68] 2015 117,577[69] 2016 143,244[69] 2017 127,360[70] 2018 137,794[71] 2019 153,868[71] 2020 131,557[72] 2021 99,745 2022 99,382 (inc. 6,500 E-Transit)[73] 2023 129,009 (inc. 7,672 E-Transit)[74] 2024 152,738 (inc. 12,610 E-Transit)[75]   E-Series:   2005 179,543 2006 180,457 2007 168,722 2008 124,596 2009 85,735 2010 108,258 2011 116,874 2012 122,423 2013 125,356[38] 2014 103,263[39] 2015 50,788[40] 2016 54,245[40] 2017 53,304[41] 2018 47,936[42] 2019 45,063[43] 2020 37,001 2021 37,122 2022 32,150[44] 2023 42,957     If anything the Transit is doing far better job and the E-series cutaway and bare chassis is just adding to it. 

If by “out of step” you mean too expensive for Mexican buyers who have lower average income, makes perfect sense.

Wondering if anyone can speak to whether the Lux Leather package is worth it on the Platinum. From what I can gather, it replaces the ActiveX with real leather. Is this really a noticeable difference for most people? Are there any other benefits, like the seat heating/cooling works better? Any difference in the seat shape or massage functions? I don't care whatsoever about the door panel inserts. If this is simply switching the seating material, I think it's a $1,700 I'd rather avoid. If there's something I'm missing, I'd love to know! Thanks.

If you ask the guys over at 6g, they are not competition because the roof doesn’t come off 🙄. Jokes aside, I would have probably bought an everest over my bronco if it was cheaper. Toyota also doesn’t seem to mind having 2 off-road SUVs in their line up that are roughly the same size. 

Not sure everyone agrees. 😀   Transit is a best seller, so Ford deserves credit for that, but failed to meet the needs of many customers in US; so much so that they had to extend E-Series Cutaway production beyond its original scheduled discontinuation after 2014 model year.  I will admit not liking Transit very much for multiple reasons so my opinion is definitely biased, but I’m not the only one that thinks Ford could have done better.  I think Transit sells well because GM Express/Savana are dinosaurs, Sprinter are expensive and with fewer dealers, and ProMaster is FWD which limits some buyers.  Not saying Transit is bad, just that it could have been much better.

Yeah, I don't know why they haven't done this either.

Would love to see the cab, especially the interior, updated to the standards of the 2023+ trucks.  I mean, the interior of these trucks dates back to 2008 I believe.  Rather old and outdated.

That looks sharp for sure...