Not so much excuses as most people can't afford multiple vehicles per person so have less interest in a "does 80%" sort of solution when they can get a "does 100%" option. Even if that extra 20% costs them a lot of money, and realistically may only be needed infrequently, it's a lot of mental worry they'd like to avoid. It's also usually the case that getting that extra 20% capability is cheaper than two or more vehicles.
Also, I don't think the goalposts have moved in the ~10 years I've been paying attention. The ones I've seen is
1) Go around 300 miles without needing refueling.
2) Cost around the average new car price.
3) Used options around the average used car price.
4) Have equivalent vehicles (some want/need trucks, some want sports cars, some want minivans, some want off roading SUVs etc)
5) Ease of refueling similar to existing. Most will accept 20ish minutes as long as they're not in a line so they end up "stranded" for 1-3 cars ahead of them so they're there for 40min to 2 hours.
That's really it. Americans want a direct replacement. Or something better that lets them do the same things. I.e. Smart Phones didn't replace flip phones because they only did part of what flip phones did, no they do many times what flip phones did. Smartphones didn't eat into computers at the beginning because they only did a subset. Once they got more powerful and ubiquitous because they replaced flip phones they also started doing ever more and now many things are mobile first because it's more convenient. I don't run to my PC do do Amazon anymore - I can do it on my phone wherever I happen to be.
Many many of us would like the less maintenance of EVs. I don't like paying for oil changes, or brake changes, or spark plugs etc. They just don't make an affordable to me EV that does what I mainly use my vehicle for. And in a lot of ways they don't make an EV that does it yet - because I mostly use my vehicle for long road trips with several adults where we're going 1-3 days away and need to get gas ~ 2 times a day while driving hundreds of miles. In places I don't know the area. I also need some off road capability and limited towing can be a convenience when not on a trip. We take a lot of luggage on these multi week trips, including hobby stuff like camera gear. We also take a battery and portable fridge/freezer combo so we can take food with us - less waste that way. I don't have a garage, I just park outside, but I could pay a bunch (maybe) to run a new line from our pole out to where we park (the house panel is full and small sadly). IDK what that would cost, when I had someone run a similar distance for a generator hook up it cost me $2,500 years ago. But it could be done.
The main limit is the driving that EVs are good at is getting me to and from an office in good weather. But I do that maybe 24 times a year now, maybe twice a month. That's the "unusual" use.