Every other manufacturer in the world has hot pipes & spinning fans & hand-grabbing belts under the hood with little done to prevent personal injury and it has worked fine for decades.
The EV market just wants everything to 'trend Tesla', so they expect a 'frunk' and for everything to be totally unlike any other ICE car on the road.
You need at least some space in front of the console, because the wheel wells need to be forward of the cockpit so the front seat occupants have a place to put their feet. Traditionally you put the engine there, because it was an obvious empty spot. Cars that didn't generally made significant tradeoffs (like two seats) to accomodate a different engine placement.
But if you've got no engine, what can go there? Not the battery, that works much (much) better as a flat planar thing at the very bottom of the frame. You can put the motor there, sure, but an electric motor is tiny. Add in the random electronics and wiper fluid and whatnot and you still have a ton of space.
So you make it cargo. It works great. EVs that don't have a frunk (the ID.4, ahem) end up feeling like they're missing a feature.