It's a psychology thing. People feel less if they are sharing a road with somebody who is sitting way higher than them.
Also big cars feel (and probably are) safer (for the occupants).
So now there is a sort of race to for SUV adoption.
This is why Teslas won so many safety awards at the start: they were pretty much unrollable in the tests as they existed at the time.
That being said, driving a small "urban" car in many european cities can be challenging (and parking even more so), I can't imagine that having a big SUV would be more pleasant overall if you live in a city.