Trouble is, everyone has their own idea of ranger more than any other class. You have:
- Aragorn style ranger. Not really magical, but a pure martial with lots of survival abilities. (could be a fighter subclass)
- Drizzt Duel wielder.
- Sneaky Forest Marksman. (scout rogue does this)
- Beast Tamer (should be its own thing with a summoner class imo).
- And finally the primal half caster.
And these features are just so broad that it ends up trying to do them all, and satisfying no 'what ranger should be' camps at all.
I've always thought that the best way to deal with a class being two half things is to make both halves work together at the same time. Paladin is the perfect example of this. On paper it sounds like it's just half a cleric and half a fighter. As implemented it feels like its own thing, and is able to focus its divine flavoured abilities into its weapon strikes and auras.
Imo something like this should have happened with bard, keeping it jack of all trades, but allowing its abilities to work in sync with each other. However that ship has sailed almost 2 editions ago now. And it sounds like bard is just going more and more into this full casting priest niche.
Would probably be better to make a dedicated jack of all trades class than to try to drag bard back from where it is now.