Thanks to everybody for your input and suggestions. I really appreciate it. I'll share my thoughts on everybody's feedback.
Centrals made a good point that padding isn't helpful once in the water and it's only useful when walking on land. As I've been shore diving in Hawaii most recently, that's included a good amount of walking. As a result, the ability for a BC to distribute weight across my shoulders and back are important to me.
Looking at the Zeagle Express online, it appears that it's not that much skinnier than the Ranger once weight pockets are added. The material is moved around a bit, but the overall mass is about the same. I'll find one in a LDS to take a closer look.
The Scout looks like a great BC - like a slimmed down Ranger, which makes sense. I certainly like the strap system on my Ranger and I expect the Scout would be similar. Along those lines, I'm thinking it wouldn't be worth swapping out the Ranger for a Scout. Sure, the Scout will lose a little mass, but I suspect it wouldn't be enough to justify swapping from the Ranger. I'll check out the Scout when considering the Express at my LDS.
Happy Diver, can you elaborate on how you thinned out your Ranger?
My big conclusion is that people are big fans of BP/W setups. I need to learn more about them and determine if they'll work for me.
Thanks again for sharing your insight and experience.