The eeevil dreaded CO2 is the reason, doncha know it causes bad weather?
Coz the AJ133 NA pumped out too much nasty CO2 for CAFE and Euro standards and JLR had to figure out a way around that problem, whilst still keeping the SC version as their halo engine.
In 2012 JLR introduced the AJ126 (3.0 litre V6 supercharged only) and it replaced the AJ133 NA in all Jags except for the XK where it soldiered on until the death of the XK in 2015. So the F-Type initially got only the AJ126 or the AJ133 SC and never got the AJ133 NA.
The AJ126 gets slightly better fuel economy and lower CO2 "emissions" in the lab tests than the AJ133 NA so the AJ133 NA was eventually nixxed altogether.

Thanks for that! Appreciated.

I do wonder whether the F type would have had more success as a 911 competitor with a higher revving NA motor and a manually manipulated tranny (so to speak).

I had the 5.0 NA in an XF and to be honest it didnt sound good at all and wasnt a lot of fun. I would have preferred the 4.2SC which sounded fantastic.

Stage III AJ126 is 475hp on 93 octane....and sounds amazing....exotic 1970's F1 (some prefer it to the v8 sound....).

Immediately spotted a big error, however: The facelift cars are model years 2021-2024, not 2020-2024. Model year 2020 was the last having Ian Callum's original design, with the longitudinally oriented headlamps, etc., before the horizontal/slit-eyed revision debuted with model year 2021. Lots of reviewers have been confused by this, probably because the MY-2021 facelifted cars arrived in late 2019 and were featured in showrooms through most of 2020.

Going back to Bruce answers to Peter's point. the Vantage V8 can be considered a tuned up evolution of the Jag 4.2. It sounds quite fruity.

This is true in North America but I believe the facelifted cars might have been MY20 in the UK and other European markets.

Nope, not so. Jaguar's UK website now lists used F-Types for sale, with photos, and a 2020 model I saw there has the original headlight design while a 2021 shown there has the facelift - same as the US regarding model year designations.

I would suggest it's as simple as Evo quoting the years that the cars were in production for, not the MY years.

The specific model year designation is the more precise and useful designation method since multiple MYs can be produced in the same calendar year. In any case, the MY 2021 facelift car began production and debuted in late 2019.