I'm partly in that boat. I think it has more to do with your definition of UTV though. I bought my UTV specifically because the plastic body panels don't ding and dent like the body panels of a real truck. I have had some pretty decent impacts that have knocked the plastic loose, but it always pops back into the retaining clips like new. It doesn't seem I can hit anything hard enough to actually break it with my work related uses.
My definition of UTV is "UTility Vehicle" to do work. Some folk must think of them as "Ultimate Terrain Vehicle" and go at things like a tank or Baja racer...
When looking at it from a work vehicle perspective, all I can think of "100# of extra steel tubing is 100# less firewood hauled" and have a hard time thinking much past that... Beyond that, I always understood part of the safety factor of these sorts of machines is the way they pop apart when they take an impact (sort of like the crumple zone of a car). Mounting all these tubes and extra framework to the machine is going help the machine take the impact damage free, but is going to transfer more of that impact to the occupants...
