Prescribing some weird qualifications of acceptability is... weird.

Truck people who use trucks as trucks, not the city folk who use them like a status icon, want a truck because of its utility

Here's my cherry picked class of valid subject to support my opinion.

Ignoring that the Cybertruck was rejected by "truck people" because it was uniquely strange (versus electric trucks broadly) & "that city folk who use them like a status icon" probably make up the overwhelming majority of truck sales, there's still more to consider.

Most fleet trucks are basic ass 2WD long beds. Real "truck people" don't look for off road capabilities and real off roaders are choosing SUVs over trucks every time. Your hypothetical farmer on dirt roads is probably outnumbered by municipal services and contractors just wanting to throw a miter saw in the bed and pull up to a driveway 1:100.

But EV trucks were rejected by the markets. Why?

• A lack of downward pressure - continued fossil fuel subsidies and almost total lack of government pressure for fleets to switch or for new buyers to choose electric.

• Poor economic conditions at launch - combined with the above, EV trucks launched well after EV cars, at a higher price point than ICE trucks, and at a time when most consumers were cash-strapped. With both options available, very few were able to afford the theoretically cheaper-to-run EV truck.

• Culture wars & confused marketing - you touched on this but gave it too much emphasis IMO. EV trucks just got brought in to generic culture war garbage. The people who like EVs unfairly don't like trucks; the people who like trucks unfairly don't like electric drivetrains. Ford and GM blth made cars they din't knlw how to sell. The Cybertruck was incidentally the one truck to get past this, just not in a way I think most of us would find agreeable.