> Politeness avoids a trillion sharp edges.

i've never seen that before, and what a great phrase!

Also, i'm in the US and don't know why this exists, but recently see this all over.

   https://www.liftedtrucks.com

Can't visit that site from NZ. I've mostly seen kits for lifting 4WDs in NZ.

And I think the arsehole ute/pickup drivers are more of a tradie demographic.

Lifted 4WDs here seen to most commonly be private older vehicles owned by a wider cross-section of society (lifted for image/status or offroad access), and perhaps are rarely work vehicles. Think lifted 1996 rough Land Cruiser, not a showoff expensive new Ford.