In some cases maybe it's just a preference for more headroom and ease of climbing in and out of the vehicle. In addition to larger doors, the seating position is higher so there's no slumping down as you have to with a low-slung car. A lot of American men are extremely large, being 250+ lbs is commonplace here.

And there is the idea of a large, heavy vehicle being more crash worthy due to being up higher and having a 1,000 - 2,000 lb weight advantage compared to the average car.

I've only owned 1 truck, an old Toyota pickup, it was small, low, and built like a tin can. Although I've been tempted, never owned a full sized truck mainly because of poor gas mileage and high initial cost.

I remember when you could buy a small truck for about the same price as a car. Over the last 20 years they've priced me out of the market.