Why doesn't any other manufacturer of cars have a similar problem? Did I miss the story where BMW or Mercedes demand $1200 to replace this part? Tesla knew it wanted a highly digital logging investment and they didn't design for use life. Doesn't feel like a sensible place to be.

But to your main point, no. The actual cost per board of getting a design done for replaceable parts would have been higher. Once they hit volume the amortization would kick in. But for the earliest, yes,expensive. Strangely in the world of eg routers, the first gen often has more hackabilty, more removable parts and it's the later ones which shrink down, gets the bill of materials down.

Seriously, they should comp all the replacements for the life of the car, just for p.r. value.