I think you're onto something here.
Sentiment is so poor. This may be a great opportunity for Elon to reset the whole dynamic when reporting numbers. Do not try to create happy narrative, present things as they are, somber, even make them worse than they are. No promises, don't offer hope. SP is low enough that it won't be affected for that reason alone, And this would be a great set up for overdelivering, rather than working from position of catching up to the promise and trust deficit.
But he won't do it. I think ego won't let him. Nothing can be done there, he is who he is, and that ego is probably huge part of his success. Reasonable people don't start car and rocket companies...