>>28509745
>customizable from the factory
that cost loads of money, even if you don't order anything, you are already paying for it by making production line more complex
and used market gets flooded with absolutely retarded option combinations

>>28509735
I believe so as well.
They used to sell compact car utes with optional top all over Europe (and the rest of the world, I presume)
Things like Peugeot Partner and VW Caddy
But they were never particularly popular as pickups. Which is why later generations are just small vans built on compact platform rather than compact utes because like 90% of them were sold as the van option anyway.