Small pickup trucks used to be popular, when I was a kid most pickup trucks weren't much larger than a station wagon, but the government fucked it up by setting MPG requirements lower for larger trucks, incentivizing manufacturers to go big. At this point consumer tastes have adapted to the market and small trucks probably wouldn't sell well even if the regulations were fixed to make them feasible.
For my part, my tastes never changed. Modern pickup trucks are hideous giant blob abominations. But that's not the way most people feel anymore.
People import kei trucks, even though importing is a pain, so there's some demand for small trucks. If the MPG standards were addressed, I think it'd be a hard sell for a real 80s style small truck (although, I'd buy one), but a 1998-2011 style Ranger is still pretty small. Build it with a c-max/ford fusion PHEV power train +/- RWD, stuff the batteries under the bed (like the 1998-2002 Ford Ranger EV, get pretty good gas mileage and decent EV only range. Doesn't need to be huge.
For my part, my tastes never changed. Modern pickup trucks are hideous giant blob abominations. But that's not the way most people feel anymore.