That's a lot of 4L hate, I had a '91 Explorer, loved that thing, sure if overheated they suck and the intake gaskets and so forth leaking coolant is annoying, I got 20-21mpg in that 5 speed Explorer 4 door... miss it...
Anything can be made to work, the A4LD behind a 3L would probably suck since the stock shift points aren't right... some manual downshifting would probably make it work though...
It's not all about gears, have to factor in tire size into the equation... my '97 Ranger 2.3L 5 speed extended cab has 4.10 gears which is fine but I don't like to cruise over 3000rpm so I changed tire sizes around until it fit my needs, ended up with ~28" tall tires, tried 29" and didn't like how often I had to shift out of 5th to hold 55mph on inclines... I've done 31" tires and 4.10's with a 2.3L but it took even more downshifting but the rpm in 4th was better at that point... I've also done a 2.3L ranger with 3.08 gears and 25" tires and that was fine too, that axle and 28" tires sucked, 5th was completely useless...
I prefer the '89-94 dash over the '95+ dash, much more compact but it's not a strong feeling... I've gotten used to it over the last 7ish years...