In the days when LR started, back in '47 or thereabouts, the international motor industry worked very differently. Internationally there were few imports or exports, and the US had Jeep (and the jeep) [cough], Japan had what became Toyota, and England (oh, ok, Britain) had the LR.
Being British, ours was the best, and we didn't even bother looking at the others. There was no competition, because importing cars was not the done thing, and the very capable LR (compared with any other British car) developed a romantic "Best offroad" image (which it deserved in the 50s and early 60s) which stuck.
Thereafter, LR failed on 3 counts at least. (i) They still didn't look at the oppo but entered into the export business, without even looking at the imports to see what they were offering; (ii) they refused to develop the vehicle internally, staying with the trusted formula success of the past (which had by now become 100% romance); and (iii) they (as a Nationalised industry) realized they were losing a fortune and should do something about it.
No bad thing in this commercial world, but cutting the product quality is never a good way to cur costs, long term.
One old boy close to retirement, when I was there as a lad, said to me the "good days have gone, ever since they decided to try to make money instead of good cars". I believe he was right. From the early 70s onward, they were all out to make money. Rover launched itself into only the luxury market with the SD1 and LR saw the RR as their ticket to make money, high end high price, high profit compared with the meccano sets being assembled alongside to the same old formula, but now with cheaper chocolate parts.
Gearbox, failures, diff failures, bearings of all types failures, oil seal failures, something utterly unheard of on the vehicles built between 1947 and the late 60s.
From the mid 70s to when they got sold off, LR made neither money nor good cars.
The farm and hunting brigade RR, what had been a very capable comfy off roader and great towing vehicle of its day, turned into an asphalt gismo SUV, and the rest is history.
This is JMO and surely only part of the story, but amazingly, the nostalgia or romance is still there.
Sad but true, but totally unfounded now, as it has been for some time. Toyota does lead the way and there's several close contenders, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and a few more, they just don't include LR.