They have driven expectations of what an electric car can deliver.
That's a debatable point. They have hyped customer expectations through slick PR but been unable to deliver on those promises, and that's what's creating the doom & gloom. I hope they survive too because - if the hype is even halfway correct - the products do seem to be promising. But having a good product is not enough: they, and any successor companies, have to meet their promises of delivery or else the fickle customers will simply go elsewhere. I might rephrase your comment to "They have driven expectations of what a car company can't deliver."
Tesla quality has a long way to go, up until now they have been supported by EV evangelists and rich people who wanted a new toy to play with. Their foray into mainstream 'affordable' EV has been a disaster so far, and could well bring down the company. No company on earth can burn a billion dollars a quarter and hope to survive, hype will not save the company any more when they are not delivering quality cars (or not even delivering cars). They have more and more competitors coming on stream, well respected and established companies like VW, Mercedes, Volvo and jaguar who are building products that the wheels don't fall off and General build quality is very high. I am afraid Teslas time is passed, you will find examples in years to come in museums. Nice try Mr Musk, better luck with your rockets.