There's a lot on the
There's a lot on the whitepaper from subaru that this article and media isn't covering.
3.9 -> 4.4 final drive ratio
They took the VTD AWD system from the WRX and put it in the wild outback (2022-2023) instead of the ATS based system... which means it now has an electronically controlled mechanical center diff. This puts it on the playing field of the land cruiser prado/Lexus GX 460.
Then they put the 2.4L Turbo 4 banger out of the WRX and put it in the outback, and tuned it for 260hp/271 lb-ft of torque, and the improved x-mode system uses the bank angle sensor to swap to low-transfer gearing under 25mph.
It's a completely different drivetrain almost compared to the non-XT trims of the outback, and the forester gets NONE of those things.