I follow your argument and support what you say.

There are always going to be critics who parrot idiotic points which you're having to refute, even among the "tech literate".

Would the car industry be as far along as it is today in EVs without Tesla? hard to say, I would say probably not. Toyota has been actively shunning EVs (hybrids don't count) and now still insisting on most of its energy into hydrogen fuel cells and BMW just kicked out its CEO for, among other things, stalling on EV development for so long.

Do I prefer being in a world where we have a Tesla? hell yes.