She/They
I bet a micro van like a Delica or Sambar would fit your needs pretty well. Compact, but large enough to fit like 8 people total and the seats are fully removable so you could totally fit a wheelchair in there. Seen people fit a whole motorcycle in them before.
The safety of the bigger trucks comes at cost to those around it. Statistically pedestrians, drivers, and passengers struck by larger vehicles are far more likely to sustain serious injury or die. The idea that we should drive larger vehicles because those inside of it are safer has lead and will continue to lead to a spiral where we drive progressively larger vehicles to the detriment of literally everyone.
The reason large trucks exist has nothing to do with some kind of democratic capitalism. It’s to get around emission laws in the US. The larger a vehicle is the more emissions they are allowed to produce so rather than create more efficient engines it’s more cost effective to simply build a larger vehicle. The trend of purchasing progressively larger vehicles is driven by marketing. Market forces are not natural phenomena like a tide; they’re manufactured.
Truck is just slang for pickup truck. Ute as a term isn’t really a thing in the US. Coup utilities like an El Camino or Subaru Baja feel pretty distinct from modern American pickups though. It’d be weird to put them in the same category given how different they are in both form and function.