Can someone please ELI5 this for me? Why is a private Tesla better? As long as Elon and employees own more than 51% of the stock (do they?), can't they not just ignore the stock price swings?
If they don't keep their promises, the stock will crash, so everyone goes on a production death march close to the end of the quarter under extreme stress, instead of just growing organically at a steady pace. Good estimates are hard, just like in IT. That's why many companies delay going public, for example Uber.
Being private gives them much better control of public information.