nothing more than cladding.

I doubt it though. Ford's closest thing to an off-roader right now is the Raptor. Their engineers haven't been in the game in forever, so I really don't think they know what anybody wants except the Baja racer/desert running crowd. Even then, the Bronco R didn't finish.

And like you said, I'm not sure fitting 35"s was part of the design spec at all. Which is a huge mistake if you boldly claim you are taking Wrangler on head-to-head.