Well, here's the update after a bunch more calls:
Toyota sells a light-duty hitch which is essentially 2" receiver for cargo carriers and bike racks, mounted to the bumper of the 4Runner. They also sell a conventional hitch/receiver for the V8 4Runners only, traditionally mounted.
To distinguish the two, they refer to the heavy duty one as a "weight carrying" hitch or a "weight-distributing" hitch. Of course to the rest of the world, that means something else altogether (bars, chains, adjustments, etc.). Hence, a Toyota OEM "weight distributing" hitch is actually just a conventional 2" receiver hitch.
Hope that helps someone else.
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