Not even close to true. We have a small car (integra) and a giant truck (F250). We use the F250 to tow boats and a camper. Most people look at the tow limit and don’t realize the limiting factor is the payload. We had to trade in our F150 for the F250 because the F150 only had 1500 lbs payload. The camper (6000lbs dry, 7500 lbs max) had a dry tongue weight of 850 lbs and a loaded payload closer to 1000 lbs. Leaving about 500 lbs for people, dogs, and cargo. Doesn’t work. F250 has 3300 lbs payload. Find me a van with 3300 payload and no, don’t look in the manual. Those are all the theoretical max payload. Look at the door sticker. F150 manual says something like 2200 lbs, but door sticker says 1500 lbs. And yes, the F250 is no fun to drive in a city or take shopping. Thats what the Integra is for.
Sure, but that doesn’t give you an actual payload number. The only ways I’ve seen to get an actual number is the door sticker or the manufacturer tow calculator. You can get the VIN off of a dealer page and enter it like https://www.ford.com/support/towing-calculator with VIN 1FTFW5LD5SFB04598 and check out the 1340 lbs payload on that F150.