Nothing new...
		
		
	
	
That is kind of funny...
For a long time Ford trucks looked very much alike.  A first gen Explorer looks like a Ranger that looks like a fullsize... about as undiverse across the board as it could have gotten... basically they all looked like bricks.  
The 95-01 always looked kind of goofy to me, I was never a fan.  The 02-10's greatly resembled F-150's and Expeditions... actually kinda hard to ID between certain Explorers and Expeditions at longerish ranges.
As far as being low slung and weak for towing... they measure and are rated about the same as a first generation Explorer in both categories... but they actually have power.