I think the interior improvements make a big difference, but I think they went backwards a little bit (from a reliability perspective) with the additional complexity of the multi-mode, climate control on the Limiteds, and dropping the E-locker. Those seemed like efforts to make the truck a little more civilized for the soccer mom demographic. Not that they're bad at all, but over the long term I prefer simplicity over bells and whistles. The full time AWD capability doesn't appeal to me at all.

I think the sweet spot was the '99-'00 models with the updated interior (without climate control) that still had the J-shift transfer case. But maybe I'm a little biased.