Assuming a limited number of design and engineering resources I think the article makes a sensible argument (though, really poorly written) that it would have m

Assuming a limited number of design and engineering resources I think the article makes a sensible argument (though, really poorly written) that it would have made more business sense to prioritize those resources on getting a more mass market offering out to consumers, capturing that revenue stream and cash before prioritizing the X. Without knowing many of the details of Tesla this argument makes sense on it face. That being said there's a hefty amount of hindsight going into this analysis and I'd respect it more if the author made this call about 2-3 years ago.