Jim, let me know when you've built and owned both types (afaik you have neither). Until then I just don't think your opinion has any value.
You are right, I have not "come out of retirement" to build a Contour 3.0. As a result there will be some aspects of this that I will not know as well as I could.
But let me make a partial list of the cars I have owned and highly modified.
1954 Ford with a 312 (stock was an OHV 239).
1963 Chevrolet Impala Convertible with a built 327. Car came with a 300 HP 237. Had several configurations. Built it differently each time I blew the engine. Last engine had Corvette short block (11:1 pistons) double camel back heads (ported and polished), 350 HP Corvette hydraulic cam, and Carter AFB from a 409. I liked that cam the best. I also tried the 30-30 Corvette cam and cams from Crane, Isky, and Sig Erson (or however he spelled his last name, his cams wore like butter). It had a Muncie 4 speed. I also ran several sets of gears in the rear end, including 4.56, 4.11, 5.18, 3.36, and 3.70. I liked the 3.70 set the best and the 5.18 set the least. I would have driver's of 396 Chevelles follow me home after blowing them off and insisting that I open the hood to show them what I had.
1968 Olds 442. Came with 400. Swapped in a Toronado 455. Came with 3.08 gears. Swapped for 3.90. Relatively stock with mild tuning. Boatloads of torque.
1972 Ford Ranchero GT. Came with a 429. Threw a rod and installed a Lincoln 460 short block. Ported and polished the heads. Increased the valves to 429 CJ valves. Installed 429 CJ intake manifold. Installed 429 CJ hydraulic cam. Converted to electronic ignition. Installed a Motorcraft 4300D carb from a Pantera (800CFM). Pretty hot car for its day. Dyno'd at 405 WHP.
Those are the ones I owned. I have also been a major contributor on many others. 1917 T bucket with small block Chevy. 1929 Model A with a 394 Olds. 1930 Ford Model A with a 56 Chrysler Hemi. 1972 Mavrick with a 351 Windsor (believe it or not, it was a tight fit, it also didn't make much additional power over the stock 302 with the stock 302 exhaust manifolds, it came alive when custom headers were fitted).
When I worked as a dealership technician, I was the "go to" guy in town for many hot rodders that had installed speed equipment of one kind or another and couldn't make it run right. This included engine swaps.
I was also the guy in town that worked on Marine engines of all sorts, from ski boats and up. That would be Marine engines that were converted auto engines (small block Chevys, large block Chevys, early Chrysler Hemis, 460 Fords, and so on).
I also drew the Repair Orders for all the factory hot rods that came into the shop, such as the Boss 302, Boss 428, Boss 429, Cobra Jets, Panteras, Corvettes (especially big blocks). One Pantera owner dropped off his Pantera with a credit card for me to drive for three months while he was in Europe. He told me to charge the gas and any repairs I felt it needed on his credit card. It was a modified Pantera with a high rise intake manifold and a Holley double pumper and headers. It was not as fast as the one with twin turbos that I worked on too.
Because of my lack of fear to work on less known products, I also got drafted to work on Propane and CNG equipped cars, both single and dual fuel. At least one single fuel one had high compression pistons and was tuned to optimize Propane.
So I'll give you that I have not done a 3.0 swap on a Contour, but until you have the level of overall experience and knowledge of theory, don't write off my knowledge as meaningless.