He got something like $180 million from California for the faked/minimal battery swap effort alone.

Basically $180 million to make this commercial and a couple scrapped demo stations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5V0vL3nnHY

HN is not immune to political biases especially when it comes to taxes.

Nobody likes taxes and if you can either avoid them or recoup them through subsidies it makes you "smart."

It's a bit incoherent to offer subsidies to encourage the creation of new tech and then get mad at people for taking you up on the offer.

>Nothing in comparison to what states offered.

For the factories, maybe.

What about the rebate to car purchasers for many years, making California Tesla's biggest market? That is substantial.

California changed their EV rebate rules in Dec. 2019, instating an MSRP cap of $60,000. Many (most?) Tesla cars cost more than $60,000 so Tesla buyers will not get the CA EV rebate.