As you mentioned there are hero's and dogs, I have been driving in a 2016 fully loaded Laramie ECO Diesel and love the engine, have a 125,000 miles on it. As an old fart that has too many miles on my frame I have driven almost everything through the years and have found a couple key factors, maintain the engine, even better than the schedule and in the case of the diesel do not buy it if the majority of your time is city driving. I commute 75 miles each way to work, each day. The benefits of the diesel are there for me and I get great towing from the engine. Had the opportunity to drive the big V8 and my truck (both same year, 4x4 crew cabs with 6'4" beds, standard gear ratio, no tow package other than electronic brakes) and used each to tow a 7000 lb dingo and trailer. Each pulled the load with no issue but the gas engine did whine a lot when going up the hill, the diesel never changed sound or acted differently. I did go through the EGR issue, FCA replaced the busted one for free, I did the software emission recall which did add some annoying lag in the throttle and FCA paid me $3,000 for that recall. Just ordered a 2020 fully loaded Laramie with the new Diesel so time will tell what this one will be like. They are not for everyone but if used right and maintained a diesel is a great choice.