Americans never asked for this, it’s the classification system for light trucks implemented following the Yom Kippur War that left too much leeway in the definition for “light trucks” that has been driving auto makers in this direction.
Of course there have been knock-on cultural issues where certain people make it part of their ego and the market effect becomes self reinforcing, but that’s how we got into this mess. History is a series of unintended consequences, again.