Going by my experience with the service vehicles that we used to operate on the rice farms servicing John Deere tractors you are miles wrong.
We have Ford F100 with Perkins 4 cyl diesel engines and some V8. The Perkins lasted 4 times more under the same conditions.
We have Peugeot 404 utes petrol and diesel, the diesel lasted 3 times more than the petrol engines.
We have Ford 250 utes fitted with John Deere and Perkins 6 cyl diesel engines. The John Deere and Perkins lasted 5 times or more that the V8 Ford petrol engines uden the same conditions.
Just drive a petrol ute day in day out on second gear on a clay muddy road for 3 hours with a ton of load both vehicles and you soon will fid out ;)

