As someone already said upthread, maybe you haven't seen that many vans lately. I'm an accessories manufacturer/vendor in the T3/Vanagon market, and a lot of the owners like to festoon their rigs with way too much stuff, on top, on the front, hanging foolishly heavy and bulky loads off the rear, and tools, water and fuel jugs, jacks, ladders, road showers, etc. off the sides. Mainly left side since the sliding door on right needs room to open, but lower profile gear can even fit there as well.
A couple outfits market sheet aluminum panels that take the place of the rear side window glass, some with out-spaced metal grids for strapping to, or else the panel gets drilled thru to attach gear mounts. It actually gets pretty insane to my eye, definitely takes the gas mileage down, and of course they complain how underpowered the thing is when they're carting 1200# of largely unneeded stuff, even after they paid some shop $20k-plus for an engine conversion.
I like my rig simple and clean on the outside. It was a real stretch for me to knuckle under to an awning over the sliding door. I travel on the road like I travel with a backpack: if it doesn't fit comfortably inside, it doesn't go. I carry a 48" Hi-lift which normally stows in the back, and only gets put on the mount I built on the front when I'll be using the back for camping, otherwise I put it back inside, I don't need to broadcast my bad-assness in the grocery store parking lot.
So look around a little more, I think you'll see what I'm talking about. Maybe it's just the part of the country you're in, out here in the intermountain west lots of van rigs are sporting a lot of sidegear.