Most premium "sporty" cars tend to have larger rims with lower profile tires. Tesla wasn't "forced" to necessarily (they could have added 15" steel wheels), but it's a general market expectation and trend. They also have to consider rolling resistance (given optimizing for efficiency is a big point for Tesla) and also cornering performance (Tesla has a goal of making a very safe car, and generally Teslas have been excellent in the "moose" tests). Those are all probably far higher priorities than rim protection.
The occupancy network might make this finally possible (although currently they only have plans to replace USS outputs with it), previously without the under mirror camera and low front camera this function was impossible.
About your PHEV, presumably you are talking about your Outlander PHEV you mentioned in previous posts? That uses 55 profile tires which are just large enough to be barely not low profile. Given its an SUV, it's expected to have tires with higher profile, and sidewall stiffness is not necessarily as high a priority.
For example, 3 major SUV PHEVs failed the moose test (including the Outlander):
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...toyota-rav4-does-it-spectacularly-152578.html