Ford published the availability of the seats when the order guide and build and price came out, so its very known that only platinum Ultimate pkg is the only way to get them. I will concede, ford (as other manufacturers) did a bad job of explaining the differences btw the trims and platinum packages.
Me personally, I was very annoyed (and vocal) that Ford only limits this feature in the expedition, especially because the 24in wheels are locked to the ultimate pkg instead of optional. The f150 and explorer has massaging seats in other trims(king ranch, platinum in f150; platinum, st and soon tremor in explorer). I think the feature should've been optional on tremor and platinum low grades and standard on king ranch and ultimate.
The first 25 expy we drove was a ultimate. As far as function, they work well for the class. They do use air bladders, but there are mechanical components in them. They do a full rolling and slight shiatsu style massaging in 3 settings. My wife said she thought the prior navigator had better massaging seats. Also, the current navigator has better massaging seats(the 2nd row massage seats were more equivalent to the expy front massage). I havent driven a 4th gen expy with massaging seats since 2017, but those were impressive then. I will say, we both thought they were better than the new armadas seats but not as nice as gw or nav. Cant compare with the denali seats as i have not driven a danli ultimate ever. Me personally, I would save the money on that feature and get a spp since its cheaper but gets the same features or get the navigator with more features and 22in wheels instead for 8k more. The 24in Wheels and massaging seats isn't worth the 10k delta over the spp. As much as I like the look, even the king ranch is a worse value than the spp.
Also of note, there IS a difference in the seats with the massagers. The massage seats are more aggressively padded, so it feels like your being pushed, especially in the lower lumbar areas. The seats in the lower grades were way more comfy, to me atleast (my wife likes aggressive lumbar).
