I'm not sure it's in Tesla's financial interest. Misleading statements give the plaintiffs more room to argue for punitive damages, and California juries have awarded tremendous punitive damages on auto companies.
Tesla is a symbol, Musk is a strong personality. To me it's the same as when Jobs said during the antenna fiasco that "you're holding it wrong".
Being a symbol, being an entity that creates objects of desire is financially beneficial to the company. The question is, who's message will the potential customers hear: the NTSB's or Musk's?
Of course I'm not saying that this is a good strategy - Tesla may as well fall from grace eventually, but the bully is ultimately powered by greed and hunger - for adoration, for money, for financial gains.
