>This has the same vibe as "mount a speaker to play fake engine sounds on a near-silent EV, because that's what people who grew up with muscle cars expect to hear".

To be fair, a significant chunk of normal cars have this too.

>Who's to say a linear acceleration can't be an "emotional drive"?

Sometimes, you want to turn corners too (electric cars have a disadvantage in this area because they're a lot heavier) but in a typical city you don't really have to do that very much so the straight-pull power gets you 90% of the sports car experience.

Not that that's inherently a bad thing- Mustangs are the only car Ford still sells for a good reason (and the base Tesla wouldn't sell if it had economy-car horsepower)- but if you want a car like that capable of turning corners with that speed then you need to spend a little (or a lot) more.