I often wondered about this. Manufacturers respond to demand, sure, but also create the demand. Consumers' tastes are shaped by advertisement by ... the manufacturers. In the US the Detroit Three have exited the small car/sedan/wagon market ostensibly because there is no demand. Other factors may play a role though: the Three are at the bottom of the reliability ranking so imports have washed the floor with them in the small car/sedan segment; the profitability per unit is much higher in the expensive SUV/pickup; they can't make a luxury car that competes on a global plane with Mercedes, Lexus and higher tier brands; the Federal Government shields them from foreign competition in the truck segment through the chicken tax. So they set out to create the idea that every American commuter needs a 6000lb+ truck that sells for 60+ thousand.
Yes, the consumers and the manufacturers shape each other's behavior, but this is an asymmetric relationship with the manufacturers having the upper hand.
Sure the EU is overplaying its regulatory hand in a quite clumsy way. They incentivized small diesels under the doctrine that somehow those are more environmentally friendly etc but that does not appear to be true. Some EU countries have exorbitant taxes on weight and engine size. It's quite crazy out there.
Not clear that a pickup truck is the embodiment of "better" but to each his own.
As for EVs they are far simpler, have fewer breakdown points, more storage, are quieter, have stupid fast acceleration and are vastly more efficient. About 4-5 years ago, I got my wife a Tesla 3 with the 3 motors and extended range. She loves it. I marvel at the engineering of it -- Tesla has not merely shoved an electric power plant into an existing body from an ICE design, rather they built it from a blank sheet up. The weight distribution is perfect, with mid-low center of gravity and the acceleration is better than my Porsche 911 (although the T3 is more porky and far less nimble in the front). Not for everyone, that is obvious, but near perfect as a mamachari.
The first point is only true if the buyer is an easily influenced nimrod, if a buyer goes into the dealership with no idea what they want or need then that's their fault, blaming the dealer for selling the more expensive vehicles in their manufacturers lineup to nimrods is a cop-out, a smart buyer knows what they want/need and leaves with that vehicle.
And yes an EV can be a great vehicle for certain buyers, they generally are cheaper to maintain but the rest of your talking points are debatable, breakdown points being very debatable.
No EV on the market today has more storage than my 24 year old suburban.
They are generally quieter than an ICE vehicle.
Acceleration??.... not a factor in any purchase I have ever made but if that's important to you then have at.
Vastly more efficient??.... not for users like me who don't use solar at home, and don't enjoy sitting in a parking lot for 25-50 minutes while charging especially on long trips, and that doesn't count the times when all the charging spots are full and you have to sit and wait your turn.
I enjoy around 450 miles between fill ups and they only take about 10 minutes at most.
Not enough storage for everything I carry daily or my GF and dogs.
And lets not get into towing, right now that's probably the biggest achilles heel for EV's when it comes to users here on this forum, right behind offroad ability.
Like I have tried to get vagabond to understand, futile as that is, for many buyers an EV may work just fine, for many people like me they just aren't feasible, that will probably change eventually but I don't see that anywhere in the next decade at least, so I will keep my ICE vehicles.