It's difficult to overstate how ground breaking Prius was when it came out; arguably more surprising than Tesla's success and paradigm shift. Before Prius came out, people questioned whether it was even physically possible to have a any working hybrid system in a commercial car, let alone a non-serial hybrid system. At least Tesla had seen working prior art in commercial EVs (albeit far less famed than Tesla).
Toyota was mocked in recent years for not going head-first into EVs. As the EVs are becoming less popular and the geopolitics of battery and raw materials escalates, Toyota is having the last laugh.
Plug in hybrids really remain the sweet spot for usability.
If you can cover the 50 mile typical commute round trip range on grid electric and then switch to the ICE for longer trips, that's a lot more practical. It's like having the best of both worlds.
Yes, you sacrifice in weight and complexity, but Toyota has absolutely mastered this design and their reliability is great.
Toyota was mocked in recent years for not going head-first into EVs. As the EVs are becoming less popular and the geopolitics of battery and raw materials escalates, Toyota is having the last laugh.