I remember the days when an f100 was still a truck. Not a 3,000 pound payload truck but a lot more rugged than todays f150 mom cruisers
Modern 3/4 and 1 tons with coil suspension in the front definitely ride better than the older stuff...I recall riding in my buddies Dodge 250 "sno patrol" (or whatever it was called) and even small bumps were trauma inducing! It was by far the worst ride I've ever experienced (in anything that actually had "suspension")
Eh - we tend to 'forget' some of the more 'persistent' issues those old trucks had. Not great cargo capacity (rated, anyways ), constant maintenance if you wanted it to be reliable and a daily driver, and unless you bathed it in oil regularly (some engine options and automatic transmissions would come with this function built in), rusted to pieces in few years. Remember when mufflers were a semi-annual replacement item? Compare the average F100 at 10 years old 100k vs the average "modern" truck at 10 years old 100k. Not that I'm in a hurry to get a 'mom cruiser' but semi-modern truck ain't all bad. Heck, my mom drove a '99 F250 PowerStroke (when they were newish) for years. Crew Cab, 8 Ft bed, 4x4, Lariat. Needed a 40 acre field to pull a u-turn but would roll 600+ on a tank of oil.