Tesla isn't in the business of helping you make money. Tesla is in the business of selling cars and keeping customers happy. Honoring prices of those that have been waiting a year, two, etc keeps them loyal and happy. Maybe it hurts Tesla a little, but how much does it help them when they announce 100k orders in the first month with "money down" even if they're refundable.
Now if people are starting to order cars just to try to flip them, of course Tesla is going to try and stop that. It's just like ticket resales. Customers hate it (fake demand and a market flooded with high prices via resales) and Tesla could legit make that extra sale to someone that might be thinking about buying it now after seeing it in a showroom or test driving it.
I saw people saying they got around the transfers because they MADE NEW ACCOUNTS before ordering the car so they could give away their Tesla log in/password and someone would have the actual account the car was ordered from. Come on, that's not "we had three kids and won't fit in the car any more," that's "man I'm going to make a pretty penny off this."
And in fact, you don't have the vehicle. It's not even like you tied up a slot and now are just trying to help someone out. If you give it up, it goes to the next person in line. It's not like tickets that have been removed and delivered to you and you're just trying to get your original cost back. There is zero downside to letting the car go... if you really are worried about the $250, then that's what you charge above the price you paid for the car, not $5k to just hand over a reservation, even if the preorder price was cheaper than today's price.
