You guys are suffering from survivorship bias. It's is like talking to a bunch of flat-earthers. Look, it's nearly 2020. Everyone knows LR reliability was shit in the 90s. Warranty costs were killing the company. If you've been under a rock for the last 40 years, look it up. Other than the Freelander, the RV8 was the only engine offered in NA during that time.
You have to quantify "reliability".
In many ways, they were more reliable than most cars of the era, built to a
much higher standard inside and out, and there certainly wasn't anything else on the planet that had the performance balance. Blowing head gaskets on occasion isn't exactly uncommon among contemporary cars, nor is failed air suspension or buggy ABS. Many vehicles had ticking time bombs under the hood, and nearly everyone aside from the Japanese had terrible computers.
The Rover V8 pushed on. Even with problems, it'll generally get you where you want to go; which is far and above many of the aluminum engines that came and went and came again over it's lifetime. Many of it's engine management options over time were solid, as well.
Land Rovers, however, offered more than everyone else in the overall performance envelope. They were the only ones manufacturing a Sport utility vehicle, and near as I can tell that's still the case. You can't buy a new car
today that's as well rounded as a Land Rover from 1994. It's not possible.
They were still trying to get past the genuine junk problems from earlier years, just like Jaguar, which was making
very reliable cars at the time despite their reputation; and they weren't doing any better of a job of pushing the vehicles than they are now. It doesn't take much to put a company like that against the ropes, and let's not suggest that they've ever been
off those ropes.
Land Rover wasn't selling Hondas, though... And yet Honda was selling Land Rovers; specifically the Land Rover designed to
compete with Japanese family SUVS. What a strange world we've lived in. That's not to suggest Honda didn't have their problems back then, either. Everyone did.
The industry was seeing as big of a change then as it is now, and nobody was paying enough money for it.
Cheers,
Kennith