Yeah ... There was a weird in between time where there were still some small vehicles without p/s, but they were still using similar steering boxes or racks, and the same smaller steering wheel. I'm pretty sure that rack and pinion steering is more difficult without power assist, too, or because a different enough gearing would change the packaging, need too much room, increase design/production/manufacture costs too much - they just went fuck it and removed p/s without changing anything else because "good enough".
I don't remember whether the S10 had rack and pinion or pitman arm style.
FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
We had a 70s F-350 flatbed with no power steering for hauling stuff around the farm. Actually driving the truck was as much of a workout as loading the bed