What's also REALLY cool is that their whole car is programmable, in other words, they can push software updates to it and have that affect your driving experience. So, if there are defects, you don't have to be stuck with a crappy car -- you just get a software update.
Had Saab made these options available through menus, I would bless their innovation. Instead, the menus are 'hidden' and only accessible with a DRM yearly license and a device.
I know these aren't driving experience based updates, but it is a testament of how a car's configuration can lead to thousands of dollars of waste and customer dissatisfaction.
You can even configure your car to "creep" forward or to stay put when your foot is off the break but the car is on. This is also done via the menu.
I think what you mentioned is more of a testament to how Saab overcharges for small features on their product. Just because Saab does this, it doesn't mean Tesla does. I'd love to have more configuration options come with my car.
I also don't understand the point about software. Very few car defects are related to software. It is stuff like rattles, and wind noise (NVH) that are common problems due to build issues. It is quite hard to fix a dashboard rattle with a firmware change.