I think it comes down to who pays for the lie.
When investors pay for a lie I'm okay with it as that's the ballgame investors play. There are also rules in place designed to protect them. But, FSD is something consumers paid for.
FSD buyers were not trained investors.
FSD was far more expensive than the typical pre-orders for video games that consumers are used to
What I see with FSD, and other "we'll do it in SW" features is the need for consumer protection. Some method of making sure buyers have recourse when a company is unable to deliver a promised feature within a reasonable time frame.
One unique aspect to FSD is I think most buyers knew the totality/timeline was a lie. I certainly knew it was a lie, but even coming up far short of the intended goal was good enough for me.
In mid 2019 (approx) FSD changed to where the language on the order page was weakened to where it no longer clearly promised at least L4 driving. So I think we need to accept that the original autonomous driving promise of FSD was a lie, and the new promise is an advanced L2 driver aid.
I don't think there is any question that Tesla will eventually reach their goals on new vehicles. Tesla isn't going anywhere, and autonomous cars are coming eventually. It's just not going to be existing owners with HW3.
Probably our grandkids with HW20.