I am talking about Tesla's behaviour. Some of the original NYT article's claims did get knocked down, but many remained. Tesla went full on nuclear against the NYT for the original article calling it "fake" and the writer a "liar" when ultimately most of the article turned out to be largely true and factual.

It is the classical "let me nitpit tiny details and then claim your entire point is wrong" arguing technique. Go look at the original NYT article, then read this rebuttal, and tell me that most of the major complaints in the NYT article don't stand.