I absolutely loathe these pop-journalism fanboy articles.

The grunts are going to love whatever solves their problems. Whatever vehicle they get to ride in instead of walking is going to get massive praise because whatever it is is worlds better than walking. That doesn't mean it's a automatically better than any other vehicle.

Armies, even non-professional ones don't count "reliability" the way armchair car enthusiasts do. Armchair car enthusiasts generally take for granted the ability to get parts. Armies see that as a supply line they need to spend resources securing. Armchair car enthusiasts consider labor expensive. Armies see labor as cheap. (relatively speaking) because for them it's an issue of ratios, 20 trucks per mechanics vs 21 is a calculation but it isn't big deal compared to "we can commandeer parts for these in any town" vs "we can only get parts for these from X Y or Z".

North African and middle eastern armies run Hiluxes because the logistics for the supply chain for those vehicles exists where they are in the world already making the supply lines comparatively harder to interrupt than some foreign vehicle that has less market penetration locally.

If Yugos were what was locally available then that's what these groups would use.

I don't think you care to ride into battle with a 12.5mm gun mounted on a Yugo, much less a 20mm. That's where the Hilux and other mid-sized vehicles are useful. But your analysis it otherwise pretty accurate.