OK, to close out this little saga of mine for future misaligned owners ... Kathy in Red Hook did the right thing and comped the alignment. I was grateful and made sure she knew it was a kind gesture because technically it was against Tesla policy. I’ve worked with her many times over the last 3+ years (with my 17 MS, too) and she does have the customer in mind. Thank you!
Advice to upcoming M3 owners: Add alignment to your delivery checklist. Document it immediately however you can with the delivery specialist, even if it means telling them you’re going to drive it around the block to check. They make notes on your file and the service reps look at those notes to determine what are factory issues and what are not.
Thanks all for your feedback! Now I can actually use my Acceleration Boost and avoid getting pulled off the road by some misaligned wheels.
It's a good thing to check, but most people aren't going to be able to "feel" alignment accurately and within a sufficient amount of time. It's typically noticed by tire wear, not driver feel.
The Model 3 especially (probably due to wide tires) follows the tire track indentations on some roads and will feel like it's trying to escape them. If you have a slight tendency to drive to either side compared to these grooves, it will feel like a strong pull in that direction consistently. On my local roads it feels like I have about an inch of room to play with before I've gone too far (there's some pretty deep trenches on these roads).
Some people are however blessed with actually flat lanes, so this depends on your local roads.
