I don't think you or the people you spoke with truly understand what your talking about. Especially when it comes to the strength of the transmission. I've been doing diesel competition for the past several years. My main comp rig was a 500 RWHP '05 F350 with 40" tires. That vehicle has over 150K miles on it and only ever had the trans replaced once. Towing a 10K Lb show truck on a 5K Lb 35' Gooseneck all over the west coast, competed in over two dozen sled pulls, a dozen or so drags, and probably over 50 dyno pulls. Now I also own 3 completely different diesel vehicles that have three completely different displacements and serve 3 completely different purposes. A small displacement diesel such as the 2.2 4 Cyl. in the '83 Ford Ranger is simply a fuel efficient vehicle getting 30 MPG. The medium displacement motor in 5.0 V10 in the '04 Toureg is in the same power range as all of our big displacement work trucks, yet could never compete with or replace them. Though the Touareg gets 20-25 MPG and is rated to tow 8K Lbs. it would never hold up to the abuse that the Powerstrokes, Duramaxes, or Cummins do. On top of that the new tow rating system implements braking and these smaller vehicles also have smaller brake and booster, there for the tow ratings will always separate the amount a vehicle can tow or haul as a payload and thus not create any cross marketing. In essence the diesel options should be just as fruvilant as the gas choices. It makes more since. People that buy the Ranger don't care about 0-60. Most 4 Runners and Tacomas have been out selling the Fords for years and most customers just get the 4 Cyl. They are just people or parts movers. With the turbos a diesel 4 cylinder in a ranger could get 30-40 MPG and even have similar acceleration to a V6. In a 2WD it could have higher gears in the rear and really push the 40 MPG range. Check this out for example:

799cc CDI Three-Cylinder Diesel Engine - Smart Fortwo Car - Diesel Power Magazine

This is the capability of diesel that can never be touched by gas. It's physics. The diesel cycle is 10 times more efficient than the gas cycle. To even continue to engineer gas makes no since. There no longer is any advantage of running a gas cycle.