Little for you maybe.  Somebody bought 2.1M Ford branded vehicles last year.   Maverick, Bronco Sport, Mustang, Ranger, Explorer, Bronco, Expedition, F150, Super Duty, Transit, Mach-E and Lightning.  Plus 4 Lincolns.  And at least 5 new ones in development including an Escape replacement of some kind.

I don’t hate this.  Ford needs something like this, something to generate interest,  to keep or bring people into the Ford fold. With the demise of the Escape, there is little to consider from Ford.  

Forget smaller reg cab.  What if they replaced ranger and maverick with a cheaper unibody pickup?   Lower price equals more sales and lower cost = more profit.

I like the idea of a Bronco/Ranger pickup, at least for the U.S., where it would keep MAP operating at or near capacity.  Not sure how a Bronco/Ranger pickup would play elsewhere in the world.  

Yea, exactly. Toyota and Hyundai gave up on tiny Eurotrash style unibody blob crossovers in the U.S. market (Toyota dumped the C-HR, Hyundai cancelled the Venue).   So if even Toyota and Hyundai can't pull it off, there's no chance that Puma or any other global Ford product in this category would be successful in the U.S., and the big shots at Ford know it.

Actual dependability, not perceived. CR-V and RAV4 are the most dependable and longest lasting models among compact anonymous unibody blob SUV/crossover  

When it comes to trucks, what I would do is keep investing in, and strengthening the f-series to keep it class leading, but replace the ranger with a bronco pickup, something that looked virtually identical to the scout pickup with its boxy, rugged design. Keep the ranger name but the same truck for overseas markets where the ranger name is stronger.    This effectively turns the ranger into a more aspirational model that gives it additional selling points over the Tacoma and frontier. Keep the next gen maverick pretty similar to the current maverick, but give it things like a full width pass through so you have the best of both worlds with a longer bed when you need it, and a four door cab when you want it. Then do a sporty ute ranchero lifestyle truck at the very bottom.    Kinda alternate between lifestyle and fleet trucks that are differentiated from one another. 

But wouldn't a BS pickup basically just be a next gen maverick? 

I get that, but at what point does it become a case of diminishing returns? Like the example you've given of Ford offering a lower cost smaller truck than a maverick, likely as a 2 door, extended bed variant.    As a maverick owner, I just don't see the point in spending hundreds of millions on a vehicle with low sales volume, and low profit potential. Ford has a really good fleet truck with the maverick, for people who want a larger, more capable truck, you have things like ranger and f-series. Then for the segment of buyers who wants something really practical with a small footprint, you have this CE1 truck that's gonna have a shorter hood and a cab pass through most likely to maximize utility.    Like walk me through the business case for what you're proposing, because I personally believe Ford has most of the fleet practical truck market locked down with CE1/ maverick, and f-series. 

I'm not sure they can get a C class product to be that cheap-it would be a B class (like the cheaper products your talking about) and to be honest can they actually even make that work when it comes to a unibody pickup without it being a useless pickup? Not sure it would be even worth it.