The dealership model is actually how consumers get better prices, not worse.
I respect your view on things, while disagreeing. So far the evidence I can see in the EV market is that Tesla is the one providing both the best cars in the market, along with the best value (by which I mean value / $ - clearly there are BEVs that are cheaper in absolute terms).
Something I realize I haven't made explicit - I consider the BEV and ICEV markets to be different markets. The make use of different technologies, different expertises, etc.. There are clearly overlaps in the markets. One of the ways we know they are related is that there is substitution between them - people choose to buy from 1 market in place of the other.
My observation is that substitution is nearly one way - people buy BEVs to replace ICEv' regularly - there is nearly nobody buying an ICEV to replace a BEV (both of these in absolute terms).
The behavior I see (talking USA here) in the dealership world with BEVs is that dealerships either don't carry their manufacturer's BEV, or they carry small #'s and anti-sell, and / or they carry and are untrained on basics like plugging it in so it can be used for a test drive. While it's theoretically possible to purchase a BEV from dealerships, in practice it's mostly a bad experience and is dependent on the consumer knowing what and why they want something, and pushing to get it.
One reason for this behavior, as best I can tell, is that economic incentive for dealerships is not only weak to sell BEVs - it's actively negative. Dealership profits primarily come from service, with F&I (Finance and Insurance) close behind (or maybe the two are reversed). Either way the service and F&I are effectively the reason for existence of new car dealerships, with new car sales more like the razor handle sold at cost in order to sell you blades later.
BEVs break the economics on the service side. To make that work for dealerships, they'll need to raise their sale's prices so that the New Car sales itself is a profit center.
You may be correct about dealership competition lowering prices for consumers in the BEV market. At some distant point in the future (multiple years at least - hopefully not decades) when there are so many BEV models in the market, and in such quantity, that we have real competition in the market again - then maybe yeah, the best prices will arise as a result of neighboring dealerships competing on their sales prices.
That day isn't today, and many consumers have quickly arrived at the conclusion that (for the market they are shopping in), Tesla's business model yields the best value.
Anecdotally - I've had bad experiences interacting with dealerships, and very good experiences dealing with Tesla. I'm one of the many conquest sales Tesla has made, where I have a hard time believing that I will ever seriously consider any other manufacturer's vehicle, while expecting to make 2+ additional Tesla purchases during my lifetime. I've historically been a buy and hold on my vehicles (as well as my investments) - prior to my Teslas, the previous car we drove was a Honda CRX. We sold it with about 170k miles and 27 or 28 years on it. This includes the brands most would consider luxury brands - my wife and I were never luxury car buyers prior to our Teslas ($20k max on a car prior); for us, the Teslas were so good, they moved us from a sub-$20k car buying range, to a used $80k sports car.
My original purchase expectation on the Model X is that we'd be driving it until we die. With the rapidly evolving technology, I have technology envy, so now I think we'll be replacing it when the 7 year auto loan is paid off (I think paying off the 7 year loan might be less beneficial financially, but it keeps me from doing 3 year leases and changing over cars even MORE frequently - the tech is moving really fast).
Overall, in the context of my investment thesis, I consider Tesla's sales model to be an advantage, while not according it much of any particular value to the overall thesis.
I consider the US dealership system to be an albatross hung around the necks of competing BEV manufacturers that is going to help several of those manufacturers into an early grave / bankruptcy. The best I can say about it is that in a world where other manufacturers are having a hard time finding any edge at all, the dealership model is a source of additional friction in the BEV market, and the manufacturers can't afford anything that makes the BEV market harder.
One reason for this is that the dealerships and their manufacturers have competing economic interests. Those competing economic interests, I believe, are going to help a bunch of both go bankrupt.
