Not to be a ******, but that's a slightly ironic opinion for someone who's owned 2 WKs and a KK to hold.
Yes, both are more quintessentially Jeep than the next Compass/Patriot and Liberty, but still.
The thing is, a lot of people believe, mistakenly, that the Grand Cherokee (And the Grand Wagoneer before it) were built to be simple, rugged, mountain-climbing machines.
This is wrong.
They were designed to be the exact same thing that the WKII and, probably, the KL, do-be as luxurious as you can while still being capable off-roaders.
The Grand Wagoneer had solid front axles because independent suspension for trucks plain didn't exist. In fact, the Grand Wagoneer (And Gladiator) were some of, possibly the, first trucks to be available with IFS. Reportedly, nobody bought it because it was crappy and expensive.
The Grand Cherokee ZJ was the same story. Again, independent suspension in trucks and SUVs wasn't there yet. Almost all of its competition had solid front and rear, too.
The WJ retained the solid axles, because it was cheaper for Jeep engineers to tinker with it to remain comfortable than re-engineer the whole platform.
Can a solid axled vehicle be comfortable? Yes. Are independent suspensions universally more comfortable, and worse off-road? Hell no. Are solid axles considered archaic by 95% of consumers? Very yes.
The Wrangler is still a true Jeep, and always will be. Yes, it's disappointing that a proper Cherokee replacement no longer really exists, even though the Patriot, Grand Cherokee and Wrangler Unlimited cover 90% of its former customer base. But there's no reason to build softer models if that's what the consumers want-otherwise, Jeep would be yet another dead car brand.
What a lot of people fail to understand is that Jeep's old markets have all since left.
The military? The smallest vehicles that currently fit the role of the old MBs and M38s are Mercedes G-Wagons and Land Rover Wolfs, and they're rapidly being phased out, along with HMMWVs, by MRAPs. The J8 is useful in some places, and might wind up replacing the HMMWV and DPV for US Special Forces, but there's no place for a 'real Jeep' in a modern military, not in the scale and depth it used to.
Commercial, agricultural, industrial and off-highway use? It's been split up. Side-by-sides and UTVs have replaced it as a small hauler and runabout. Small utility tractors have replaced it as an small instrument hauler and PTO source.
As a hobby vehicle? Again, back to the side-by-side.
A brand needs to evolve or die. Frankly, it's amazing that the Wrangler is still as profitable as it is-and that's entirely because of the 75,000-and-growing 4-doors they sell every year.
Enzo Ferrari once said that 'The Jeep is America's only true sports car.', and, when it comes to the classic, SWB versions, that's a very apt comparison-like a Ferrari, everybody loves them, but only a handful of people every year can justify owning one. As someone who's only car is a TJ, driving it every day blows. It's the best thing in the world when the top's off, the sun is shining and I'm tooling around some old logging road, but when it's -40*C, I'm hammering on the ignition just to start it and giving myself frostbite holding the steering wheel because the heater core needs about 20 minutes of movement to start pumping out heat, the top is making a bunch of sqeeking noises, every bump rattles the whole vehicle, if I hit a patch of ice, I slide around like I'm skating, even with snow tires, the noises coming from the drivetrain would be death noises from any other car, but are normal for a Jeep but no less annoying...it's mornings like that when I really, really want to go buy one of the cheap stripper Patriots at the local dealership, so I can afford to leave the TJ in a nice car tent and be able to work on it at my leisure and drive it only when I want to.
Maybe when you live in the South, where it's warm all year around and doesn't rain much, where you can go topless with a jacket in January, DDing a Wrangler is great. But above the snow line? It's really tiring some days.
And that's why Jeep needs some softer vehicles.