You are making it sound like the Kei market makes more than just a very very tiny portion of total sold trucks in the US. Its not, it is very much a niche market.
To be clear, the small number is the amount of people who are willing to jump through hoops and legal loopholes to actually import one. The actual number of people who would chose one of these over a Ford at their local dealer is likely orders of magnitude higher.
To be clear you are completely materializing that without any data. The data we do have are import numbers. You say it’s a lot of hoops but looks like you can buy one of these sub 10k from an importer. No hoops and in a reasonable price point. Supply and import demand paints the picture.
> And yet we're discussing the phenomenon online and arguing about it on our niche platform..
What is your point? I am simply stating that you are overstating the actual market share of this demand. I don't disagree, modern trucks are comically too large but Kei trucks are not a response to it.