I'm not sure I count as an 'old fart' quite yet, but I am pushing near 50... For me, my truck has been babied since new... always garaged, regular service, top shelf parts when needed.
But I did always treat the bed as 'it's a truck', but never the outside--I've even had it professionally detailed twice over the years. The bed was looking pretty bad last year, so I finally stepped up and got a spray-in liner to hide all the sins in the bed.
It was an expensive truck back in the day, and OMG, it sure is an expensive truck to replace today.