Grouse. In short, yes they are worth it. From an investment standpoint thinkingman doesn't think. Regardless of fanboys or whether or not they are appropriately suited for truck work. The fact remains buy one rust it out, beat it up, put 200 gs on it and sell it for a mint to a fanboy in 10 minutes.
I enjoyed the heck out of both of mine. Last on i had was a 2010 4.0. So not much experience with the newer stuff. If you need a truck to haul stuff, have lots of room be a smoother ride and tow anything remotely heavy. You need a full size. If easier to park, turn around, anecdotally less prone to breakage, something you may want to mod to get in more trouble with and IMO just funner to drive, then a tacoma would fill the bill perfectly.
You might not be as smart as you would like to believe.
I bought a 2006 TRD Sport with 6spM just to see what all the hype was about.
Immediately, I noticed with 450lb of passengers and a canopy over the ridiculous, useless 5' bed, I couldn't clear a speed bump without hitting the bump stops....Literally.
Rear leafs had negative camber.
Know I know that's a sign of quality and loggers and other men with facial hair recognize that is what you want in a rig made to make you look more manly, but it didn't work for me.
I called Toyota and they said I was crazy, they didn't make anything underengineered with crappy OE supplies and to go away.
I eventually replaced the rear leaf with OME Dakar springs and removed the 3rd leaf so I didn't look like a desperate 19yr old trying to impress girls and removed those garbage yellow Bilstein 4600s (TRD? more like TeRD) and installed 5100s and it finally rode like a decent vehicle.
Same for the front...OME 883s and 5100s....Not preloaded 5100s like the people who only care about looks and know nothing about suspension dynamics which makes up about 89% of TacomaWorld members.
I spent $2k and did all the work myself to fix what Toyota failed miserably to do with all their vast engineering prowess and superior quality control.
Then they finally issued a suspension recall to fix what I told them was wrong years earlier and they told me to Eff Off when I presented them with receipts for the expense to fix a vehicle defective from the start.
I drove that car to 186k miles, when I traded it for the F150 I have now.
Toyota:
New suspension to fix the sad crap they put on at the factory
Two water pumps, installed myself
New set of takeoff wheels from some kid that had to have 35's to feel like a man because my original 'alloys' corroded and flaked so badly it was embarassing.
Gas cap door fell off from the cheap stamping rusting away...Not even anything close to a hinge on it.
Rubber roof strips sailed off on I-90 near Ellensburg.
Rear window rattled loose on cobble in the LT Murray...Luckily I realized it before it literally fell out and shattered.
Frame had rot holes in it but not 10cm so Toyota said 'Keep driving that crap'.
I sold it for $12.5k to some fool who believes what he reads on the internet.