Don Durito
Hero
A big part of the issue here is niche protection.Yet we still have Rogues!
So clearly it is not impossible to make it work.
If being good at certain skills is going to be part of a class, then that class needs some protection. Rogues get Expertise and later Reliable Talent.
Rangers get natural explorer. Of the two, Rogues get the more reliable one, that is less dependent on the campaign and gm interpretation and works in all kinds of environments.
The Rogue doesn't have to worry about being stealty in the forest, while the Ranger doesn't get natural explorer in a city.
The wilderness knacks I posted earlier in this thread for 4E Essentials could easily, be ported over into 5e. In fact I might have a go at converting the 4E Essentials Ranger to 5e just to see what it would look like.