REALLY? BROKEN FLYWHEEL?

I would assume they checked it the two times they had the transmissions out.
We really can't assume a close inspection of flywheel is the norm' in the case of automatic trans. Of course the flywheel comes into play in manual trans service. If a vehicle has a history of particular part failure there are typically YouTube videos related, God and everybody knows about. That sort of thing would be looked for. Does this Ranger have a known flywheel issue?