A van will have more cargo volume for the same wheelbase, be easier to load, and have the cargo be covered from the elements. Those are made for carrying stuff. Pick-ups are made only to show that the owner is compensating for something.
Pickups let you load stuff as high as you want to and the open sides can make things much simpler. Try loading a couple of loads of dirt in a van.
For home use I have seen most people buy dirt in bags. A sedan or even a compact would handle carrying those. The open sides can be a benefit for sure, but I don’t know about putting cargo ‘as high as you want to,’ given that wind is a thing. And vans are pretty tall anyway!
I understand that they can have some utility on a farm or something, but the average person is not regularly transporting a ‘couple loads of dirt’ in suburbia.
And I never said the average person should own a truck but buying dirt in bulk (measured in yards) isn’t unusual if your house has space for a garden and it’s way cheaper than buying bags of it. Same for carrying lumber that would be too long for a van.
Also it’s very funny that if you want to be able to do most of things a truck can do, the alternative to a truck should be a contractor’s van which has worse visibility on the sides and at the back, is just as big or bigger than a truck and uses the same engine…
