I dunno if you've had a lot of Toyotas, but this statement might well could be Toyota's corporate motto. They're a very conservative car company and honestly that is part of the reason I was drawn to them and have stuck with them. While the Big 3 and European makers constantly tinkered Toyota (and Honda, Nissan, etc. to some extent) kept dialing something in until it's right and then don't change until they have to. I was just helping a friend trouble shoot his electrical system and it occurred to me that for the 22R-E trucks Toyota's wiring harness is essentially identical from 1985 to 1995 across a generation change. Why should they change it? No reason, so they didn't. You could almost trouble shoot any truck from 1979 to 1995 with the same tools and books, more or less. Parts are interchangeable. Heck, the e-locker from a 2014 will fit into the housing for a 1979 with only the slightest of need to grind a small notch. They seem to get burned when they try something new and that becomes corporate policy, e.g. the U.S. lack of diesels. They didn't do well in ~1985 and that mentality /still/ makes them shy off trying again. OTOH, it took them 10 years to presumably fix the driveline vibration issues and of course they never really did totally solve the 3.0L headgasket issue, so going slow can cause a lack of response as well.
I used to work for Toyota as a tech and I seen my share of things. Motto or not. The 8 inch diff used in 1979 in todays trucks that weight at least twice as much if not more? wonder why they keep blowing up rear diff in the FJ cruiser.... (guys that actually used the elocker) I retro fitted an elocker into my 88 but im sure my runner doesnt weight near as much as todays vehicles using them. Tacoma even used a larger diff in the non elocker rear end (wonder why....)
the 3.0 headgasket issue was mainly to save money as they where changing body style from 89-90 and they went with a cheaper supplier for the gasket. my 88 3.0 still has its original HG with 235xxx miles on it. My 88 wasnt subject to the recall. Even with the recalls done on the ones affect the HG still went out shortly after on some.
If you want the best model toyota, buy the 1st or 2nd year they come out, sure they have bugs but less parts failures. when they release a new model, they opt for the best/expensive supplier, once the vehicle as been released and doing good, toyota will find a cheaper supplier for parts and that is where you will see more failed parts.
2007 tundra has a different rack and pinon part number than 2008+. when you try to order a 2007 tundra rack, it will superseed to the newer 2008+ number which has issues leaking. I not which later year did toyota finally either changed the supplier or design of the Rack but the newer tundras has less Rack failures.
OH when I was a Tech, I replaced countless numbers of water pumps... they always leak
not sure if the recalls in 2007 threw toyota in a mess and they started to lack in building quality vehicles or they use peoples mentality that its a toyota and they last forever so toyota already established its name and started to build things much cheaper.