Agreed. My argument is not that pickups are also owned and not used to their full potential.
My argument is that pickup trucks are the affordable workhorse of America. You can pickup a cheap second hand truck and beat the shit out of it while getting the job done.
Need to demolish a concrete structure at a customers house and dispose of it cheaply? Have you workers toss the rubble into the bed of your $5000 f150 to dispose of yourself. You wouldn’t want to do the same into a vans cargo space with all your tools.
Most work trucks in America tow a trailer full of tools and other materials that can’t get messed up, that’s why it’s really handy to have a bed attached to the truck for waste or extra tools.