I agree with you that quality lacks in many places with the GMT-325/330/335 vehicles, I will not deny that for a second. But do not get reliability confused with quality. These vehicles are reliable as anything you could ask for, especially the GMT-325 trucks. At least that has been what I have experienced with the three separate examples that have been in my or my family's possession.
We also used to have a 1997 Jimmy, quite a few moons ago. Again, it was much of the same that you encounter with their truck counterparts: it would creak, squeak, and moan like a broken-down three-dollar hooker (actually, come to think of it, the rattles and quakes were worse in the GMT-330s than in the GMT-325s) and various trim pieces were cheap and inexcusable, but the only thing that really went wrong with it, and actually refused to stay fixed, had been the water pump, of which it went through three different ones. But it never left us stranded on the side of the road and it was a willing and capable vehicle in the winter.
Anyhow, I had a thought: The soon-to-be-abundant 2.0L Ecotec Turbo might be an interesting engine to have in a compact truck, and not in an SS/Denali version, either.