No, whether or not a company is behaving in the way a term is perceived is irrelevant. If I was to make an advertisement showing a minority in shackles with the catch line "You'll be a slave to our luxury", you can't defend that advertiesment by asking "Does the company sell slaves?", which is what you did by asking if Tesla is pay to play.
The term is offensive to anyone who has had to deal with gambling addiction in a gaming community, or had a child run up their credit card, etc. I just think it was a poor choice on their part to choose a term that is the cause of litigation to ban the process in many countries, because of its predatory nature.