I have worked in dealerships and have used many brands of pads. My wifes Escape we bought early last year as a low mileage one owner 2019 and the pads all the way around had been changed to Federated's Silent Stops. It was from a dealer who I used to work for. Until this year we've had low dust and no noise. Notice I said until this year. The rears started to squeek badly only in reverse, every time when they are cold since about May. After warming up this goes away. I'll report back sometime as I hopefully will cure the noise with some Wagner ceramic pads I got on sale. The rotors are only 5k miles old but I'll scuff them with a Roloc disc when I install the new pads. I'll save the ones they installed being they are so new and use them some day many years in the future.Most of those Escapes should still be clean since they're almost new and mostly still on the OE pads like you say.
When it is time to replace them, Akebono
You might be onto something. Maybe its cheap pads or manufacturers aren't looking at the color of burnt binding material when making pads. The material in pads can be various colors after worn and burned. I worked dealerships and mainly saw tones of grey but it wasn't abnormal to see whitish, browns or blacks. Depending on the wheel color, certain ones show up more than others. I think hard pad material is my issue on my wifes Escape but its odd only the rears are noisey when cold. Years ago I had some early full ceramic performance pads and they made god awful noise for 4-5 stops when cold, once warmed they stopped very well and were quiet.
Under 200 hp and pretty much the same weight as my A3 Audi thats tuned to 270 hp. The pads and rotors are close in size so I doubt its because of the power on the Ford. Its does okay but its not a powerhouse.
Performance, aggressive pads=dust.
Nope , went for the economy. Have gotten 32-35 mpg on road trips with the 1.5L.
