Your Ranger doesn't have shear pins. A snow blower has shear pins in it, so when you a block of ice (or a rock) gets fed in, rather than mangling the whole machine, the pin shears. Then you can dig it out, remove the offending item replace the pin and be going again.
The seals on your axles (transfer case, transmission, engine) are designed to keep rain water spray and the occasional deep puddle out. When you drive in water more than hub deep, it will overwhelm the seal and dirty water will get in. Then you have the fun of disassembling to dry everything out, cleaning the dirt out, repacking bearings, put in clean oil and reassemble it. If you don't dry & clean, you will be replacing parts. Moisture and iron = rust and rust and bearings are not a good combination.
The automatic hubs unlock and relock as you switch from forward to reverse. Dad blew 3 sets out on his F-150 when he got bogged down in snow in winter/mud in spring and tried rocking back & forth to get out. Ford gave up on warranty replacing them and installed the HD Warn manual ones. He never had an issue after.
As this is enthusiast site, we tend to push things. So, you will find discussions on how to 'improve' things. Some, like Dana 44 knuckles* are probably beyond what you'd want to do in a truck you intend to keep for years.
Ranger 5 x 4.5" wheel pattern is really too small for drive axle, spindle, bearing, and hub; Dana 44 off F-150 has 5 x 5.5" and that extra 1" allows for fitting of a lot stronger parts.