I feel like the first half of this quote causes the later judgment to be invalid....
Oh the surface I see your point, but it's off the mark.
Yes, I choose a fast highway vehicle for my personal vehicle (bought it with a blown motor which my dad and I replaced). But I grew up in the sticks near a swamp, and most of my family still lives there. I really enjoyed hunting and my Camaro couldn't handle the hunting roads. :noidea:
I've
driven more off-road vehicles than I can count. From horses to bicycles to dirt bikes to 3-wheelers (balloon tires instead of shocks!) to 4-wheelers to side-by-sides to tractors to bulldozers to backhoes to pickups to SUVs to Jeeps (even an old restored Willys jeep once) to a customized lake-bottom mud-bogger.
I haven't been too much into modifications (many of the above were owned by others), and I've only recently (this year... still learning) gotten into researching mods for my 4Runner. It's all about the money right now.
Of course the mud-bogger (old Chevy pickup) could handle mud better, the ATVs and motorcycles could handle narrow trails and jumps better, and it was a very long way from a comfortable ride. I now know that a heavily modded Wranger could run circles around it in heavy rocks. But in stock condition, the J40 was hands-down the best all-around general purpose off-road vehicle I've ever had the pleasure of driving, and I drove it a lot. Except maybe the old WWII Willys Jeep, but I only drove that once so I can't really judge.
If I had the cash and wanted to buy a dedicated, simple, dead-reliable, and all-but-unstoppable highway-rated off-road vehicle, I'd pick an old J40 or FJ40 LandCruiser every time.