Why do cars have a second row of seats and two doors that rarely get used? Your average Audi doesn't exactly get used to it's potential every day either.
Ignoring luxury and performance vehicles, vans, trucks and cars are all just four wheel vehicles optimized for different types and quantities of cargo.
>(and in fact would probably balk at the idea because it would damage the bed)?
Cars have cup-holders yet some people refuse to eat/drink in their cars.
At some point the line between needs and wants becomes blurry. When I see someone in a nice car I think "good for them, I hope they enjoy having nice things"
Because the back-end of that truck is an almost precise corollary to a Peacock's tail: practically useless, but designed to impress others with the ability of its owner to carry something useless and thrive.
Every time a friend needed to move apartments, they would ask what I was doing. Pickup trucks are really useful for moving large objects like furniture or lots of big boxes. Depending on how you live they may be an affectation, but in my brief experience the utility was real. (As opposed to SUV's which don't seem to really hold more space than vans, and almost never go off-road.)
Many of the benefits of a good pickup are really the benefits of a ladder frame chassis, but few non-pickups are made on a ladder frame now. 4-Runner, Xterra, it's a short list.
I've lived in Salt Lake and Las Vegas, and the idea of someone who owns a pickup truck not using it to carry stuff because it would damage the bed....
Like I've never even heard that as a joke. It's a sad world out there if that's really happening.
The real joy was that the engine was absolute overkill in torque (but not HP) for the car so you could pull 8 tons (and did) despite the car being rated for no more than 2. Sadly the wheels were rather small so none of that torque goes on the street unless you load the car up.
It's incredibly useful when you do happen to need it.
I'm not alone in this then. I find it incredibly odd how much money people seem willing to sink into cars. Why would anyone take out a loan to purchase an asset that will depreciate rapidly and provides practically no extra value? Why do people buy pickup trucks when they don't need to haul things around all the time (and in fact would probably balk at the idea because it would damage the bed)? People are weird, man.