Not trying to absolve councils of their obligation to fix potholes but I have two points to make.
1. Totally agree with everyone about rim size and tyre side wall. I honestly don't understand the desire for a tiny side wall and a huge rim. Tarmac race cars still have a fair bit of sidewall so it certainly isn't going to make you any faster, so why? Morons who opt for huge rims and tiny sidewalls (especially on heavy cars) for aesthetic reasons deserve to have their rims buckled. I have a 20yr old hot hatch, and even I've downsized on rims for the sake of practicality. The car came from factory with 195/45/17s, I've downsized to 16" rims and use 205/50/16 tyres, I even tried 205/55/16 but they rubbed on the suspension. As a bonus the tyres with more sidewall are usually cheaper, only £90 per corner for top tier rubber for mine. I'm usually good at avoiding potholes but have still hit a fair few over the years, never once damaged a tyre or a rim and I drive all over the country, maybe helpful that the vehicle mass is only 1400kg though haha.
2. Road damage is proportional to the fourth power of axle load, i.e. if you double the load on an axle, it causes 16x more damage to the road. Anyone who knows their physics/engineering will know it's quite rare to find a relationship with an exponent as high as four (the only other example I can think of is the Stefan-Boltzmann equation for luminosity of a black body). This means that HGVs and buses cause 90% or more of the wear and tear to the road surface (notice how there's usually damage or subsidence at bus stops). I don't know whether HGVs are being under-taxed or the taxes are being badly utilised but something needs to change here.