Independent suspension is fine.
No it isn't.
Anyone with a little bit of reasoning can look at the vehicle and ponder: if I were to drive over a mudhole or a puddle full of branches that previous unlucky SOBs tossed under their wheels, what can get snagged and ripped off?
In case of a Defender - the answer is none.
In case of a Range Rover Classic or Disco 1, the answer is - ABS cable, maybe. Brake hose will crack anything short of a log good for a cabin builder. Who gives a flying fuck?
When I look at the underside of my wife's LR4, I shudder. No matter what I do to it, no matter what lifehack workarounds I find, it is terrifying. Not because an ABS cable or brake pads wear sensor cable can be snagged, but because it can completely, entirely, disable a vehicle.
That's beside the point that in a Defender or Range Rover Classic or Disco 1 there are 2 CV joints, protected against everything including a landmine. There are 8 CV joints in an LR3/4/5, protected against elements by 1/16" of rubber.
And, amazingly, all this IFS/IRS trickery does not even exempt you from driveshaft failures!!! Driveshafts that see no movement unchecked by engine/transmission/differential mounts!
Now, sorry that I had to edit it multiple times, but here's another thing to ponder.
Picture a wheel that has to come up 4" over a football-sized rock. With the axle width to the tune of 6 feet, and radius arms about 50" long, the rubber bushings have to accommodate the angle between 3 and 5 degrees, give or take. With IFS/IRS, and arms being about 20" long, the same wheel displacement translates into 11 degrees. It doesn't take a degree of rocket science to know that the bushings will not last that long. My personal case in point: LR4's front suspension bushings had to be replaced at around 40 kmi. My D1's radius arms bushings had to be replaced well after 200 kmi.
There you have it. No make/model/year is exempt from it. An LR3/4/5 will never be a Defender, and the new Defender built on LR3/4/5 platform will never be the beat-up junk that was driven in Camel Trophy or across Darien Gap.
This is not to say I have a beef with the progress. I love my LR4 even when it leaves me stranded within a $1000 tow bill from the nearest place that can fix it.