Not worth the cost, complication, and likely unreliability vs. A gasoline version. The dream of a diesel engine being the small, reliable, torquey, long lasting engine is not going to come true in America.
So far DPF's and high pressure pumps have not been cheap. Not every single one has failed, and I bet a majority make it to 150k--but there are too many stories of them not. The guts of the engine might go for a million miles, but all the pieces around them seem to fail.
Since typical American method of buying cars is to finance for five years, and to buy about as much as they can afford, a good deal of people are not sitting on several grand to do these repairs when they happen.
Now if we had fuel prices like the rest of the world, things would be much different.
Diesel being a lot more $ up front, plus 50 cents a gallon more expensive (in Houston), plus expensive repairs...
trust me, id love my accent to have a torque-y little diesel getting great mileage, but the EPA and CARB-Nazis will never let that happen.
I take all your points as to why diesels don't make sense in the US - never accused anyone of being dumb though, I'm sorry you inferred that. One thing that keeps being mentioned is the unreliability of diesels, that certainly isn't a trend we see here, and I'd reckon about a third of the vehicles on Aussie roads are diesel, with the ratio in Europe even higher. I wonder what's different in the US that's given rise to the reputation of not being reliable?