I don't see any scenario in which the CEO of a company employing ~140 000 people gets angry at one person and ends up firing 500 instead can be painted in a good light. And I don't think any sane person that's actually highly skilled and in demand with a shred of dignity would go back after being fired in such a tantrum. ...
I'd suggest removing the assumed emotion from the story. Many people tend to paint a picture that includes Elon being "angry" and throwing a "tantrum," etc. I don't think I've ever seen any first hand sources claiming this sort of thing, and it only sounds plausible because these sorts of things get repeated by complete outsiders so often...
Even the Yahoo story doesn't go the emotional route: "Musk, the employees said, was not pleased...When she balked, saying deeper cuts would undermine charging-business fundamentals, he responded by firing her and her entire 500-member team."
Adding and/or repeating emotion words (angry, tantrum) with certainty, as you did, tends to cloud judgement. In any business enviornment, it is far more likely that it was a boring, cold calculation -- CEO asked manager to do something, manager could not or did not, CEO decided do the restructuring himself quickly. Period.
Next: realize that these so-called "firings" were probably, legally, grouped in as part of the layoffs, and therefore legally fell under the requirements/protections of the WARN act.
In that case, what very likely happened was:
1) 500 employee group was told, one way or another: "go home and receive full pay for doing nothing. You may be laid off in 2 months, at which time that pay will end."
2) Some days or weeks later, many of those folks were called up and told "come back and work...you won't be laid off."
But that is boring. Nobody is going to go viral saying "I got sent home for a few weeks at full pay, and then got called back in," so that story isn't going to spread.
Negativity and emotion sells...but while it may be good for generating clicks, judging any situation based on imagined emotions is a flawed path.
*Small edits for clarity.