It's almost like our enemies are rich people! Crazy thought, right?

This is why I said it became an ego thing. Automakers didn't set out to kill the most kids possible and ask "how do we design towards that", they exploited a regulatory loophole which then cracked open a wider market niche based on people's egocentrism, brutality, and myopic attitudes toward transit (e.g. carbrain).

I'm not sure if American consumers "liked" them so much as they were pushed heavily by auto makers while they quietly phased out more practically sized vehicles like hatchbacks, station wagons, and a lot of sedans (other than those sedans that fetch a high price for their performance and appeal to an entirely different market; your corvettes, mustangs, etc.) That 'light truck' designation brings with it larger profit margins; the vehicle itself is bigger so the manufacturer can charge more for it, and then they have to obey fewer environmental regulations so development/manufacturing is cheaper in comparison to trying to meet the regulations for smaller vehicles.

Slow down buddy, you're skating past everything worth talking about.

To be fair, they are hugely popular in both Canada and Mexico as well. I'll leave it to you to figure out why.

Hint; if marketing didn't work, it wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar industry.