If they fire him, that will tank the value of the snake oil.

In the immediate term, yes. But there has to be some point at which an objective board would see that terminating their relationship with Musk would be a long term positive.

I’m not saying we’re there yet but it does feel like we’re marching towards it (I'm also not saying the Tesla board are objective because I doubt they are)

If they fired Musk, he would wage a never-ending scorched earth campaign against Tesla, and as an executive he definitely has access to a lot of internal information that would allow him to inflict a ton of damage. At this point their only practical choice is to maintain the status quo by submitting to his demands.

This is so stupid but you’re probably correct. The board will do whatever he wants because that is the nature of having no collective spine. You cannot stand up.

That point is when Tesla starts declining in absolute terms. And Tesla grew 35% in 2023. To be a long-term positive, dismissing Musk should produce even higher growth rates- which sounds extremely implausible. Conversely, the probability of Tesla falling into irrelevance in a future without Musk is extremely high.

He's not immortal. I assume that when there's a risk of him disappearing from the picture, Tesla investors will be heading for the lifeboats, tanking it in the process.