Have you ever in your life met, or even heard of, a single person who said "I'm not buying an EV because I read a PR piece that Toyota is doing R&D on some weird cutting edge tech thing" ?
The Californian government was a big booster of hydrogen at one point. Toyota might have reaped the rewards if California had built that infrastructure out (and, to be honest, if Tesla had failed early on).
Their hydrogen fuel cell technology is very good for what is. It’s just not something many people need.
Which the Japanese government and Toyota have also been pushing hard for reasons that don't appear to make any logical sense.
The classic examples of "groupthink" used to be the Japanese Navy in WW2 but I think we have a new contender.