Gosh I sure would rather have all the hardware in my car without having it taken apart should I decide to add EAP at a later date. Sometimes people buying really are limited in funds and need to keep their payments or purchase price to a certain comfort level for them. The path to getting EAP later is then super simple, easy for the owner. Otherwise I doubt people would want to go through having their car disassembled to add stuff. It's like adding structured wiring into a new home. Way more cost efficient and less labor involved than to do a remodel to add just it later. With the service centers busy already,
why would Tesla create a more time-swallowing feature for them to have to contend with on top of what they already do. No, smartest thing is to add the wiring and devices while it's being built and at volume pricing for all the parts has to be much, much less expensive for Tesla as well.
And BTW as far as I know Tesla didn't raise the price from $35K to $49K
@Vaxe . Those are two separate versions of the car. The fact that the ramp up took longer and the $35K had to be postponed in delivery isn't the same thing. At least not at this point. And I believe the $35K version will be delivered down the line. Lots of ways once they've reached high production to alter features and body and interior parts to reduce the production cost of the vehicle to reach that level.
As
@SSedan said, it's an option. You don't have to have it and pay for it if you don't want to. But if you sell or trade-in your non-EAP vehicle sure is nice the next person can add it and if they want FSD at some point when it's approved and launched, it will be easy for them to then add that too (since you'll need EAP to use FSD).