IIRC, the crawl ratio works out to about 5-6 MPH at redline. Not sure what the speed is at idle, but it's gotta be pretty slow.
And super short first ratios weren't that uncommon in manual trucks in farm/work truck spec throughout the 70s, 80s, and at least early 90s. The last vehicle I drove...
I'd much prefer M-Lok.
I was a little disappointed when I saw the 1913 rails in the recent vids, if only because I think this version below just looks better.
Edit: However, we know for sure that the picatinny rail will work with the Chick Fil-A sauce mount.
I remember seeing a video (It was one where journalists were doing ride-alongs on Ford's off road proving grounds I think), and it showed the driver in a manual car engaging the crawler gear. It definitely looked like he was using the reverse lockout (ring you pull) to engage it.
A 4WD with open differentials and capable all-terrain tires is more than the vast majority of people will need.
If you have to ask "What do I give up?" by foregoing locking diffs, you definitely won't need them.
Contemporary all-terrains with the 'Three-peak mountain snowflake rating' (severe winter service) are pretty good. They'll be noticeably more capable than a typical all season, and given a competent driver, will work fine in most situations.
They're not even close to the capability of a...
Thought about selling my Forester for about five minutes, but it's way too useful/ cheap to maintain/ efficient as a daily.
And 2018 is the last year of three-pedal Foresters. Can't quit it.