Thing is.... Land Rover get a right old slagging for moving away from utility vehicles to chelsea tractors, but are any of the other big 4x4 manufacturers any different?
Take Toyota for example. The early Land Cruisers were the Land Rover Series III rival, and were comparable and capable if basic, off road utility vehicles.
Today's Land Cruiser is a very different beastie and compares more with the Range Rover I'd have thought, but do Toyota get the same brickbats?
No, they aren't, which is where the genuinely basic, utilitarian pick-ups come in. Even accepting they are not as good off road, for a significant majority of users, that extra capability is not required.
Where my parents used to live in the Brecon Beacons, all the farmers (pretty much without exception) ran pick-ups with steel wheels, 4wd and interiors that you could hose out.
One of the main reasons for ditching their defenders was the theft risk, either of the whole vehicle or all of the body panels, wheels and exhausts. Because apparently you can disassemble a defender with nothing more than a spare half an hour and an old spoon.