It was all marketing. It always was. They made more money selling pickups and evading CAFE standards. So how do they convince people to buy more pickups? Slap a shell on it. Then pay Hollywood to slander minivans and wagons. When wagons become moderately popular again in the 2000's you just drop the chassis lower and sell the SUV as a wagon. (Looking at you Ford and Dodge)

The SUV production line is the car companies' swiss army knife. They can get 3 out of 4 form factors out of it. That's all it ever was. And the entire off roading community is sitting on the biggest secret that the biggest weapons aren't super special. AWD, a low gear, a moderate lift, and a manual transmission are enough to go most places. Once AWD was commonly available car companies needed something else to sell as off-roading. But the most common utility vehicle in poor infrastructure areas is still the Toyota series 70 after 30 years. But even Toyota doesn't want to sell that in the US, because they can make a higher profit on larger vehicles.