Well, family vehicle needs are pretty much a function of
- How tall are the parents and are the kids in rear-facing seats? -> this determines how much length you need from the first row to the second row seatback basically
- How fun is it to disassemble and reassemble your stroller every time you load it into the car? Compact CUVs and wagons can't swallow a stroller without folding and/or disassembly. Vans can.
- Then payload and/or tow raticome into play, depending on the family hobbies
As a result, many families in Europe go straight for the boxy compact-cargo-van-based family hauler, like the VW Caddy, the Ford Tourneo Connect, the Mercedes Citan, the Renault Kangoo, the Peugeot Rifter, the Citroen Berlingo, the Opel Combo, the Fiat Doblò... there won't be any soft-touch plastic, but they are ridiculously roomy - 3000 liters of cargo volume and more - for compact-car money.
https://www.volkswagen-vans.co.uk/en/models/caddy-life.html
The super-sized "compact" CUVs like the Tiguan LWB, Kodiaq, Rogue/X-Trail all have about 2000 l cargo volume with the seats down, just like the larger midsize wagons (Superb comes to mind). But those CUVs guzzle 30% more fuel to haul the same amount of cargo as a large midsize wagon, the third row is useless and you don't get the utility of a van.
(I spent a lot of time in car dealerships this year with our Emmaljunga stroller and Maxi-Cosi Pebble/2way-fix car seat...)