I don’t understand why people have their pants in a wad about Toyotas hybrid strategy. Their hybrids are great, go buy a EV, that’s why we have a market.
You're not allowed to be happy unless you're doing the "current thing."
Producing and consuming hybrids does not account for the externalities you are giving off to everyone around you. Air pollution, which people are generally freely allowed to spew, accounts for 5 million avoidable deaths a year. BEV don't entirely either yet, but at least they are a lot less and can be transitioned off power plant emissions in the near future.
Not much of a market when Toyota lobbies your government to tax EVs while giving breaks to hybrids.
More likely they were hoping to achieve second mover advantage by starting late, and also limiting risk at the same time, since it would allow them to pivot easier into various kinds of alternative technologies.