Agree.
And FWIW, one of the problems for Ford is that they've painted themselves into a "pony car" corner. The C7 is not a pony car. It's far above that standard (and I'm not a Chevy fan).
Chevy clearly threw down the gauntlet in the pony car wars with the Z/28 because they can cannibalize parts off their other-planetary platforms (ZR1, C7, etc.)
Ford has NOTHING in the C7/Z28 range right now. They have nothing to compete with corvettes directly. Never have. You'd think they would introduce a platform that is designed to compete at that level. A totally different car. But no.
All we get is a watered down, Japanese looking Fustang with a 4 banger. They are gambling on the odd pairing of muscle car with good gas mileage. In my mind those two things are antithetical. That's like trying to sell me a 1.0 liter duelly pickup with a 10 gallon tank claiming that it can haul stuff (your dog), gets good mileage and is easy on the wallet. Those qualities rob from the other and makes no sense. There's no free lunch and you can't trick people with that logic Ford. Good luck with that.
Is there a business case for a low powered muscle car?
Its an oxymoron. As to your comment about no business case to compete with corvette. Thats stupid. You could say that about any make or model. Theres always competition and that means there's a market.
A company's gas mileage requirements are based on an average of all the vehicles it sells. A 30+ MPG mustang is a godsend, because it means we can have monstrous horsepower cars on the other end of the spectrum like the 13-14 GT500. Ford is not stupid, we may not be getting exactly what we want right now, but you can bet theres a reason to the madness.
As for a "low powered muscle car," i may be misunderstanding your statement, but 300+ horsepower is equal to, if not more than the past 3 generations of mustang GT's (5.0 excluded obviously) ... having owned and driven quite a few turbo 4's, they are a shit load of fun, im still a little hesitant to see one in a mustang, but putting that aside i bet that car will be a blast and a serious performer.