i owned "a defender" before the frontera, short answer is "badge snob".
long answer, people buy them not because they want, need or that its actually a good car, but just because its a "defender". you get some owners who think unless its got a green oval on the front its not a "proper" 4x4. if there was a pecking order, fronteras would be the one with no eyes and bald head

however when you view it subjectively, between 1983 and 1997 the only thing that changed on a defender was the wheels, seat covers and woefully inadequate engines. at its inception in 1983 it was designed as a stop gap, it was already outdated as it rolled off the production line. there were much more exciting and innovative "defender" concepts based on the range rover in the late 70s, and again based on the discovery in the late 80s, none of which got bank rolled. up until 1990 land rover only made 1 product and your choice was how much chassis you got, if it were not for the softroader discovery land rover would not exist today. in 1997 defender got a new dashboard and seats stronger gearbox and whichever euro compliant engine was required to keep up with regs to date. so aside from that the vehicle intrinsically has not changed what so ever.
great for the purists, not so great for anyone that wants a decent 4x4 with power, comfort, decent load space, passenger space, economy, at a competative price which all the japanese products offer (in which i include the frontera). theres a reason why you only ever see farmers in a hilux, ranger, l200 etc. in 2011 they sold 20,000 defenders, toyota sold half a million hilux derivatives. when i sat down and compared a frontera with equivelant aged defender 110 the frontera was technically superior in every single way except for departure angles and brake over angle. even the 2.2 petrol equalled the DIESEL defender mpg figures.
so yeah, i would agree with loneranger, "jealous"