What is the purpose of this body style?

I had a very hard time finding an '05-'06 4WD Access Cab. Tundra brought out the Double Cab in 2004 and it appears the AC production dropped off a cliff after 2003, everybody wanted the DC. I figured I better jump on this Limited stepside with only 110k miles. There was a '05 SR5 4WD 4.7 fleetside with 190k miles available nearby $5000 cheaper, after that the only low miles AC after 2 months searching was in Salt Lake. These Tundras last a looooong time, though they had to do the frame replacement tango same as Tacoma for the East of the Missouri river trucks. That was so crazy bad Toyota had to replace frames on not only thousands of Tacomas but thousands of Tundras also from the same years. This one was a Texas and New Mexico truck, so no rust. I've seen a gold Tacoma stepside around here, very rare, the only one I've seen in the wild. There was a Ranger stepside back in the 90's, I've seen a couple of those.

Yep. No way a thief can fit into a crowd with this thing. The theft report should say 'Look for pickup with taillights the size of a Hibachi with amber turn signals'. Bam, there's only one pickup that meets that criteria.

 

As I understand it, Ford originated the smoothside beds back in the early 60s when people were just starting to discover pickups for recreational and family vehicles. Before that they were almost all flaresides, with the fenders, and some people preferred that look, since they thought it looked more like a "Truck", and less like a "Car".
Whatever turns you on, I guess.
Personally, I think the Tundra version wouldn't look quite so bad if Toyota had just given it a flat side bed with traditional "Bolt-On" style fenders, but that molded smooth look is just kinda weird.

 

Looks like 1957 is when Ford went to the fleetside. Those Ford stepsides pre-1957 were nice looking trucks. Ford had a F150 stepside I think in the late 90's, just the Regular Cab, I've seen a few of those. The Lightning F150 was a stepside.

 

Awesome