I was arguing for nuance, not arguing that everyone needs a truck. Rural folks, blue collar folks, and folks that need to build and fix things themselves get comparatively more utility from a truck. In some cases, it's a practical necessity.

Someone has to plow the neighborhood. Someone has to drive the power washer to the worksite. And so on.

And the farther you live from a city, the more likely that someone is either you or someone who trusts you enough to borrow their truck.

I get what you are saying, but I don't like the way you are conflating personal use of these vehicles with commercial use.

Some people have a good reason to own heavier vehicles for private use, but even in a rural setting, those are few and far between. There are many more good reasons to own such vehicles for a trades person or a farmer. Commercial use of those vehicles is completely justified.

Maybe it is an American thing I don't get, but there seems to be a confusion between private lives and the work people are doing? Someone does have to cart the tools and materials to the worksite, but that person should be using a work vehicle. There doesn't seem to be a need for that person to own their own truck and pay for their own gas?

The issue is perhaps that in the rural parts of the US, the boundary between these things becomes pretty fuzzy. You may need to plough the snow off your own driveway. Your job may sometimes involve the need for a truck even though it generally does not. You may be doing your own water heater replacement, and hauling that in a regular sedan is tricky (though not impossible).

I do hear what you are saying and it is important to try and maintain multiple perspectives.

Station wagon won’t pull 10,000+ lbs.

And how often does your average person need to pull 5 tons of stuff?

Some average people own cows. Others camp in fifth wheels. So it depends?

I'm in my van right now, out on some BLM land with others parked in most directions. The fifth wheelers can ONLY be hauled by a truck because of the way they are designed. Regular hitch-pulled trailers come in all sorts of sizes, and over the weekend we were parked next to two that got pulled by SUVs.

But sure, I take your point, there are legitimate, "ordinary" needs to pull a lot of weight sometimes. The question is whether the frequency of these really justifies this sort vehicle being someone's daily driver.

I know a man who retired into a fifth wheel. He doesn't move it much, but it's definitely smaller footprint housing, so more responsible than most when optimizing for environmental impact. You'd definitely want a truck if that was your lifestyle.

Fifth wheels are just a specific type of pull-along vehicle that connects to the mount in the bed of a pickup truck.

There are many pull-along vehicles ("campers", "trailers") that offer precisely the same space and features as any particular fifth wheel, but connect to a regular ball hitch instead.

At least that is how I've learned the meaning of this term.

Well, this guy has a fifth wheel, so he needs a truck to move it.

Who said my truck was my daily?

OK, so the adjacent question is about the sustainability of everyone (or a lot of people) having a 10k lb-hauling vehicle sitting around in addition to their daily driver.

Once or twice a year offsets the inability to do so.