Can't help but think this is on purpose. Elon straight up said they can't sell mostly base models right now and survive, they need premium configs to stay afloat.
Tesla does not need to sell premium configs to "stay afloat". They are selling premium configs so that their margins are not so brutally low, so that they don't get roasted for that as well. Honestly, Tesla can not win: Sell low margin base models, have a terrible quarter and get roasted. Sell high margin, high trim models and get roasted for high priced cars. They can not win.
When your capacity is limited, selling higher-end models with higher margin is the completely obvious choice to maximize revenue and profit. "Have a terrible quarter" is far worse than "get roasted" by random people on HN.
I agreee that they are bound to upset either investors or consumers but Elon often promises the moon for both and I think that is what gets him in trouble most often. Would there be record reservations if the Model 3 was advertised as 50k base?
No but then they would be lying because base is 35k.
They could win if they could ramp up production to hit their touted targets, and sell both models.
This will happen in Q3 - they want to get the maximum out of the "last quarter" of federal tax credits.