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Sorry but the e-bike can't go on the highway. No dice.
Here's the thing: it substitutes for a lot of trips of a several miles or less. That's enough for a lot of people to replace much of their driving.
I understand the reluctance from people in the US. Much of the cost of car ownership happens no matter how much you drive, so switching to an ebike for some trips may not save money for a very long time if you have to keep the car. Also, riding a bike (even a class 4 ebike) in many places can be really scary. I live in Denver, and there are parts of the city that I wouldn't go with an ebike, and Denver is one of the better cities in the US for biking infrastructure.
If you can get to a point where you can rely on rentals and ride share for your car needs, getting an ebike makes sense. Otherwise, it's going to be a hard sell for a lot of people.
Most people live in some form of family/marriage situation (they may not be legally family/married, but they have lived with the same person/people for years and plan to continue that). Such situations can generally get rid of one car for a bike, sharing the other car(s) for the trips that they cannot bike for. It is more work to share a car instead of each person having a car. I know a lot of two driver families that have 3 cars just because if one car breaks they want a backup, they can get rid of the backup if they would bike for more.
Most already have a bike (not ebike, but a regular bike is good enough), it just doesn't occur to them they could ride it for errands instead of just trail rides on a nice saturday.
I totally agree. If you can replace a car with a bike or ebike, that's going to be financially worth it. Then the only questions become about safety and infrastructure.