Because apparently it is just a number.
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I was running an elevator today and this rig showed up to dump some wheat.
That is a 3/4 ton grossing just under 40k. The tare weight was 14.5k

We are in sorghum harvest right now. My neighbor has a Merritt aluminum hopper and a steel Trailmobile, both with jeeps built out of cut off truck frames. He usually tows them with farm tractors. I saw him tooling down the road yesterday hooked to one with an F350. I was more concerned about how far it would take him to stop than it took to get it moving (in fairness- he wasn't doing much more than jogging speed).

The actual answer is there is an SAE test that specifies some benchmarks of acceleration and stopping with particular loading profiles. The maximum weight you can hit those benchmarks in is the tow rating.

It was a Duramax.

This rig is bringing wheat from 20mi away down I40. The interesting thing is they have a truck and hopper in the field. They aren't using it though because the daughter feels more comfortable in the pickup.

And that is why I would never buy a used farm or ranch truck.

We regularly doubled the stated capacity. It is tough on everything.

the truck bed on that thing is easily another 1500 to 2000 pounds. Maybe more