I just test drove a Bronco 2 door Base with manual transmission, which is exactly how I will spec it if I buy one.
The powertrain is okay. If I hold gears it will pull quite well. But it has very far spaced gears. 1 and 2 super short and 4 to 6 super long. The engine has no torque below 2400rpm, so this needs a late shifting habit.
The overall ride quality is way better than the Wrangler thanks to IFS. Handling is way sharper although the nose diving under braking is very bad and scary. But overall what I'd expect from a barebones dedicated offroader.
I already know the interior is going to be crap before I drive. But it still disappointed me in terms of usability. First the digital tachometer has long latency. This may not be a problem at all for AT but it makes rev-matching really hard to do on the MT. The clutch has no feedback at all, so it could be challenging to judge your bite point when offloading (but I guess it will brute force it with the crawl gear). The shifter gives me mixed feelings. On one hand it had a very mechanical feel (almost like a gated shifter), but on the other hand the shifter is very low and short making it a little uncomfortable to use, and I prefer long throw on a 4x4. The electronic parking brake is terrible to use because of its location. I just want a mechanical lever! Also not having a handle and step bar makes it very hard to get into, but a simple aftermarket job will solve it.
And finally, 49k for a base MT is a scam! There's no reason it's priced that high. I've seen much worse for ChDM parallel imports but it's supposed to be affordable in America.
So overall the Bronco is a little worse than I expected, but it's way better than my old Wrangler. I can be patient and wait for the new 4Runner. And now I definitely appreciate the GX so much more and understand why it's so popular among the off-road people: it has the capabilities to go on most trails but you don't have to live with the terrible comfort of a "hardcore" offroader. I would daily a GX but never a Bronco.