When we hear the word "owner" we associate that with full ownership, as if you own a car, house or whatever and take care of it and use it.

This kind of ownership is much closer to lending money to someone. While they are technically owners, emotionally speaking the arrangement is much more as if Elon Musk owns the company and the "owners" lent him money.

Elon Musk is the person who has built the company and spent a considerable amount of time working in it, putting his heart and soul into the company. An investor can jump in at any time and become an "owner". Does not mean an investor has the same emotional attachment to the company.

Say you build a house with lots of efforts over many years and live there for decades. To pay the bills you sell ownership shared in the house to investors. What happens to that house is going to matter a lot more to you than the investor.

It is not without reason that family run companies often outperform stock owned companies. When you have an attachment to a company beyond mere short term profit, that is a stronger bond.