rack and pinion has been the standard for nearly all smaller passenger vehicles since at least the early 90s.

you can find things like that or like pitman arms on larger/industrial vehicles fairly commonly, though.

to your point, however, yes -- sports cars were the first ones to popularize the method. Rack and pinions tend to feel less 'sloppy' , especially after some use.

The idea stuck around in the industry though because it results in less customer complaints and requires less finesse from the mechanic during install/maintenance.

tuning a 'steering box' is a lost art relegated to hot-rod folks at this point.

So was recirculating ball a halfway point between worm and sector and rack and pinion then?

We have a 1947 Willys CJ-2A, which I believe is worm and sector, though we haven't gotten into the steering yet because there are so many other things wrong with it. Including, it seems, the formerly working brakes. I discovered they had crapped out as I was backing up near a bunch of formerly neatly stacked cinder blocks.

Are you Mister Bean?

The only recent example I'm aware of is the Ineos Grenadier, and it's quite controversial as it means the steering is a) slow, and b) has very low self-centering (also a function of caster).

Recirculating ball steering also probably won't allow for new fangled features like active lane-keep assist, collision avoidance steering, self-parking, etc. (Which is probably not missed anyways by the 4x4 crowd, including the Ineos Grenadier ideology.) Mercedes switched their G-Class away from recirculating ball steering just a few years ago and I bet, based on MSRP, that their primary use now is much less 4x4 and much more embracing of complex computerized features for urban crawling and highway touring.

In 1975, your comment would be correct.

In 2005, it's horribly wrong.

I suspect that a problem with rack and pinion 'back in the day' was materials and manufacturing mean they would wear and the steering would get sloppy. Where recirculating ball naturally is low wear. Once they upped materials and manufacturing rack and pinion was simpler and cheaper.

I think for non power assist recirculating ball is nicer because it doesn't transmit road forces back to the driver like rack and pinion does. (Could be wrong)