The Camry is running on 16" wheels while the E39 is running on 15s with that sidewall height. This trend towards massive wheels is almost entirely about style

The Camry is running on 16" wheels while the E39 is running on 15s with that sidewall height. This trend towards massive wheels is almost entirely about style and has little-to-no engineering merit. If you step out of the 70s and early 80s we had cars that rode and handled well while not needing low profile tires. The fact that the Camry can provide "modern" levels of driving dynamics on tires that aren't super low profile supports this. Even so there's no engineering reason Toyota couldn't offer a 15" wheel option. It's all about style over substance. Cars vs SUVs/crossovers is a red herring as all vehicles (in the states at least) have been getting larger and larger wheels. SUVs that offered car-like driving dynamics only came out as the trend towards larger wheels took off. It'd be perfectly reasonable to sell such a vehicle with smaller wheels but it probably wouldn't sell well as people have been conditioned to think it looks weird.