My personal opinion is that the 2v Mod 4.6L does not have any more potential than the 5.0L. The DOHC 4v does because of the superior flow rate the heads are able to obtain.
With a proper setup the 302 can rev fast and high, even with pushrods. The 302 was dumped because of emissions concerns, which was also why the old Chevy 350 LT-1's were dumped.
Ford looked at keeping the 5.0, but to meet upcoming more strict emissions, they canned it in favor of the mod motors. Ford would have had to do a complete head redesign (they did on a few, called the Ford Explorer), and it would have to be setup with OBDII. The investment to make the 302 viable beyond 2000 was significant. Getting the 302 (a design 35 years old when the last finally rolled off the assembly line) to compete with the newer LS1's that were coming out and run smooth and quiet like the newer cars Ford was targeting the Mustang at would have been hard to do.
The less expensive move was to go to the Modular V-8's. A series of engines that shared much in common (kinda like the old FE blocks) and taking some of the lessons learned clear back in the glory days of Muscle cars and applying them with today's technology created a line of increasingly powerful, smooth, and clean running powerplants.
The engines are built to take more than the current 302 block, and are more refined allowing for better marketing of the car. The advantages of the single overhead cam engine don't ever surface in a daily driven street V-8 IMHO.
Neither the 4.6L SOHC or the 5.0L Pushrod V-8 will see more than 6000rpms on a car intended for street usage, and that kind of rpm allows either engine to be well within it's capabilities and have a long life. Obviously the DOHC engine is another story, but there is very little in common between the parts used in the DOHC Cobra and the SOHC GT engine.
The benefits of the 4.6L SOHC's longer stroke, and it's OHC efficiency are outweighed by the brutish nature of the 302. Ford created an engine that would be competing with, and in many cases beating the much larger 350 from it's competitors for the next 30 years.
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