I’ve been a straight shifter all my life until I stumbled on this nice 2002 Ranger 4.0 SOHC 4WD with auto. It is straight stock with 30.5 inch tires and 4.10 gearing. It is a sweet running machine. What I am impressed with is how the computer controlled 5R55E transmission selects its shift points. At any rate of acceleration, it does not hunt and seems to keep the engine right in its power (torque) band which for this engine is very flat at intermediate RPMs. What I am getting at is that it never reaches the high RPM’s that the REV happy contributors here talk about.
Noise is not performance, and I see no justification for all the high RPMs that some of the folks here seem to enjoy. Torque is what makes the vehicle accelerate, especially when pulling or going uphill, not RPMs. I have not used my truck for drag racing, but even then, I think I would shift sooner than some of what I see here.