Car horns are much louder than these "introduced" noises. Interestingly, at low speeds the internal combustion noises are sufficient to alert pedestrians and bikers, but at high speeds, it's the tire noise that is loudest.

I've been seeing this talking point around a lot. I'm not sure where it started but it seems to resonate with people and so get repeated. But let me rephrase it: "We can only reduce the noise by 49% by changing the engine, then we'd need to look at tires, which EVs already tend towards low rolling resistance versions of".

Which has a different tone than the "let's just not bother" vibe I get from the original version.