To me, this whole thread boils down to two questions. There are so many thing to consider here that it can hurt the brain.
(1) The NHTSA requires that a manufacturer report any safety defect within 5 days of discovery. So did Tesla discover a defect in the fire cars and push this "fix" to mitigate it so they wouldn't have to report it to NHTSA? Or have they really not been able to truly identify a defect and the fix is just for battery longevity? If they can't identify the root cause of a defect, they may stay off NHTSA's radar by saying there is no identifiable defect at this time.
(2) Can a manufacturer remove "features" without consent? Legally, this may be a gray area. If rangegate/chargegate are really related to safety, NHTSA might be able to get involved eventually and determine if the fix is acceptable. Otherwise it may have to be settled in a class action suit.
I have to ask myself, If I were affected and inclined to make a report to NHTSA on the basis of safety, what would I say? I can't say I have identified a safety issue with my car because the "fix" might have corrected the safety issue and after all,
my car hasn't caught fire or shown any signs of doing so. So what could I tell them: that Tesla removed features? I know they'd likely throw that out because I'd have to answer "I don't know if it's a safety issue". My only option might be to report that I believe Tesla may have identified a safety issue and tried to "fix" it with a software update without reporting it to NHTSA. That might get it on NHTSA radar because ultimately, NHTSA should be evaluating safety fixes and it might at least get them to investigate whether or not the intention of this update was to mitigate a safety issue. If NHTSA were to find that indeed the update was designed to reduce fire risk, Tesla could be in trouble for not reporting it (and the fix) for evaluation/resolution by NHTSA.
Mike