If there is no reward for making superior products, who will bother making them?

There is. It's a patent. Those expire but Tesla gave it away before that anyways. So, I guess, Tesla?

Anyways.. the idea that selecting a plug would make you somehow positioned to be an "energy provider" ala Shell is just awful to me, let alone, but that anyone would seemingly be thrilled about that outcome brought out my sarcasm.

A patent itself is not a reward, its a cost. The value you extract out of it can be valuable, which brings us back to square one: incentives.

A patent is an asset. An asset is anything that has present or future value to a company. So - being granted the patent is a reward for creating the invention and going through the process of filing the patent.

Right.. and Tesla threw those incentives away. So, are incentives the "end all and be all" of analysis? It seems like it isn't.

I'm not sure what your point is here. Tesla positioned themselves as an "energy provider" by building a ton of locations.

The connector being better is a separate issue. Anyone else can adopt that if they choose to.

Tesla did not position themselves as an "energy provider" ala "Exxon." Exxon owns the _supply_ not the _distribution_. It's an entirely backwards analysis of the situation.

Anyone can buy land and sell electricity on it. You should look _forward_ to that market opportunity.. not stand around pretending that Tesla is the new Exxon. As if more "Exxon" like business are at all a good idea.