I saw that and also noticed the public apology. I don't know what went on in private. Since nobody had contacted me over it, I assumed "case closed".
It comes from a different environment. Over here in Australia you can drive for a whole day non-stop and not make it between two of our cities (thinking Adelaide -> Darwin, Adelaide -> Perth, Darwin -> Brisbane etc). We have 4WD tracks that take days to traverse and some even require fuel drops to make it the full distance (thinking CSR, GRR, Tanami etc). We think of 4WD ute as something you need not only 4WD for, but ground clearance as well. Which also helps when you can't dodge the kangaroo bits left in the middle of the road by the car/truck in front!
So the primary thought here is "lift + off-road tyres". With "country" and 4WD tracks often within an hour of our major cities, we're much less city-centric, so the idea of a lowered ute with road tyres or high performance sports tyres on a relatively low-performance vehicle doesn't quite come to mind for us.
But we do know there are other people out there, in other countries, some not blessed with the wonders that we come across, like stopping for lunch and seeing the below picture. That's from a roadside rest area in central Australia (South Australia to be exact, near Lake Hart for those that want to find it). Camera was actually a HTC Touch HD telephone which probably had a little low-frequency issue in its lens but the photo is untouched other than a resize (and if you give me an email address in private, I'll send you the original un-resized photo, it's the same but but in its original 2592x1552x24bpp format). Yes, the sky really IS that blue out there.
I hope I've drawn a fair picture of where we come from, so you know where that comment came from. I'm not trying to make excuses for the guys - but knowing how we think might help you see that the comments aren't seen from our perspective as offensive as others might see them. I can remove the posts if you wish, just let me know (private is ok).
Oh, that pic ...