Or cars can get smaller...
Also, the beds were bigger back then, which was a waste of space.
What? The entire point of a pickup truck is bed space. If you don't need bed space, get any other kind of vehicle. Extended cab pickups are an abomination.
And yeah you didn't risk tearing your rotator cuff loading and unloading them. That's actually a feature.
It is very capable as a truck and also nice as a general road vehicle.
My Subaru Outback, with split-folding rear seats and a flat-folding front passenger seat, is great for lumber. Better than any pickup truck, except for payload capacity.
Let’s be honest. You don’t have a truck with an 8’ bed. If we go by midwestern dealership inventory, less than 5% of F150s have the 8’ bed. Of those, 70% are XL work trucks. 0 are above the XLT trim (does Ford even let you do that?).
The vast majority of trucks are SuperCabs with 5.5’ beds. That’s what all my siblings have. Because, you know, the dimensions are exactly what will fit in the standard suburban garage. As long as you don’t lift it.
I keep a bunch of nylon straps in the Subaru, the ones with the metal buckle at the end for cinching them down. With the the integrated roof rack built into the Outback, the straps, and two 2x4s that I would also buy at the hardware store, I can easily carry 4x8 plywood on the roof, securely. There are videos on YouTube of people demonstrating how to do this on Porsches. It’s easier on an Outback ;)
Again, a truck has a tremendously larger payload capacity!
I’ve used trucks a lot. I paid for a lot of my college tuition doing stuff with a truck that a Subaru can’t do! I’ll pick the outback any time I need to go buy lumber and will gladly need to lift things maybe 2” above my knees.
Never understood the desire to drive around a massive truck or SUV, especially in an city environment.