I'm not going to advocate van living, but you are selecting all of the worst possible conditions. A similar approach would make living in conventional housing look pretty horrible. (Maintenance always required, can lose everything in earthquake/fire/flood, stuck with bad neighbors, horrible taxes, crime in some neighborhoods is a problem, noise or smell from a nearby fixed site......)
Many young folk eat out every meal. No penalty in a van. If you are out hiking, biking, partying whenever you aren't working the inability to stand up is not a penalty. If you park in a good place noise, fumes, kids vandalizing and all those other problems go away. And in much of the Silicon Valley lack of air conditioning isn't an issue.
In my mind the most significant problem with van living is the limited toilet/bathing facilities. But there are options there also, so it is not like you have to defecate on the street and go without showering. Those who do that are lazy or otherwise impaired.
It is certainly no worse than living on board a boat, which is an option many people idolize. It isn't a desirable option for everyone, but certainly not guaranteed to drive someone insane or anti-social.
I think boats are a bit bigger then vans and their more designed for living in. A van is designed to transport shit.
When people think of boat living, something the size of a van just does not come to mind. Thats like living in a row boat. A house boat is like a trailer. You would at least need some kind of more advanced van, box truck, airport transport to have some sort of connection to talking to people about living in a boat.
Even a house boat considered small (say 300SQ FEET) is 3-4 times larger then a decent van. I think you have confused a van with a bus. You can't tell me 4 times smaller is the same. And you can have a desalinizer on a boat to supply you fresh water, enough room for pumps to run a shower or a sink, so at least you have the privacy of some plumbing. I don't know how they handle shit.
Plus you can tell coworkers that you have a house boat, its not thing to be ashamed of. Their seen as cool, you can brag about your sea navigation skills, etc. If you start telling your bosses that you live out of a van guess who won't get promotions. It's not socially acceptable unless your like a low tier employee. I don't care what anyone says it will lead to discrimination. People will joke about it. Its one step up from a shopping cart. Even if you brag how much you saved up you will be labled a miserer.
It goes between :
Boat:
I can sail down this beautiful canal to look at the sunset and sleep in a place you can't go on foot. If its clean around the boat you can even go for an ocean swim in the morning. You are part of a boat community too.
Van:
I am good at skulking around walmart parking lots and I have gained high knowledge of where the police patrols are most dense. I never shit in the same place twice. The skillset you acquire from van life seems remarkably similar to hobo skills. I don't give a shit but some people are just gonna make this association and you can get socially fucked.
Trailer:
You can say you don't find the real estate market reasonable but I like living like a normal person.
I think there are serious social, environmental and health hurdles to overcome living in a van. Not to mention you will just be automatically characterized as some kind of junkie, fiend, deviant etc if you live in a van by certain people who certainly have a guiding hand in most companies.
I don't care anyway. Just saying it might be counterproductive to corporate progress, social standing (not social life), psychological health. Also cops will consider you suspicious. If there begin to be weird crime in your area like serial killer, burglar, rapist, you better believe the guy in the van is gonna get some attention. It's just how it is.
I mean the house boat is kinda shady too, but your not quite as mobile and I think people feel more at ease around them then vans. You can't exactly blend in so well. \
And then the last thing you want that your explaining to your employer that you were late because you had to talk to detectives about a serial rapist. I also think their notorious for drug dealing.