"From the very start it was just Tesla penny-pinching."

I don't think so. I think it was worse, and indicates a deeper (and more depressing) inadequacy:

I think Tesla put the big screen (17" ?) in the first Model S as a signifier of high technology and modernity.

So far, so good ...

Now, however, as the Tesla itself came to signify the steps forward to an electric car future and modernity in general, designers of other cars copycatted the Tesla so as to evoke the same sentiment.

Meanwhile, actual interior design of automobiles has regressed significantly - and very often, dangerously - and we have one, and probably two entire generations of vehicle models to get through before it gets fixed.

In the meantime, get used to monstrosities like this:

https://cdn.bmwblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/bmw-7-ser...

... and if that wasn't bad enough:

https://media.wired.com/photos/625f4ef8536da34b19a67a72/mast...

These designers are clowns. They should be ridiculed. Screens are a poverty.