All of those cars are not even close to recent except for the NSX. And even the NSX was dead for over a decade before they brought it back! Honda used to have some interesting, fun, simple sports cars... But those days are pretty far behind them at this point.

One low-volume, $150k+ car does not make it seem like they "make interesting cars". They certainly have in the past, but at the moment they really don't from a sports car perspective.

Because they single-handedly forced the market against its will to accept electric cars, and we're all better off thanks to it, now that regular car companies decided to join the party too.

Nope, because they made a car without a combustion engine and still managed to convince some people to buy it.

Because they built a car that people lust after. Breaking it down:

Exciting, classy exterior shape Retracting door handles Giant touch screen World class consumer software UI Regular OTA updates Ludicrous mode Auto pilot

Each of these is individually incremental-- the sum is amazing... just like the iPod and iPhone: there were many MP3 players already in the market and my Windows mobile 5 smart phone worked pretty well - but nobody lusted after those things.

I was a fellow Element owner for some years. Interesting was just about the nicest thing that people who didn't get the ride would say. I loved that thing, it just wasn't the most fuel efficient vehicle I've owned and my commute changed to a point where fuel efficiency became more important than being able to do interesting things with the seats or insides. But still, interesting nonetheless.