At least if the dealership model disappears, it's the manufacturer's own reputation at stake, not whoever owns the franchise.
The dealer experience when buying a BMW, say, is astonishingly easy and reasonable (IME) vs. the same process of visiting a "normal" dealer. I knew this intellectually, but when we were looking for a new car a few years ago, after I had "recovered" from my sports car mania, we looked at several conventional dealers including Ford and Mazda.
Holy CRAP those experiences were AWFUL. I mean just TERRIBLE. Creepy dealers who clearly thought they were going to put one over on us, skeevy and hamfisted attempts to rush a sale, the whole nine yards. It's just BANANAS that this persists.
(For the record, we ended up with a VW. At the time, it was kind of right after the whole scandal, and they were fairly motivated to sell cars, which worked to our benefit. And the GTI is a hell of a lot of fun while being (a) cheap and (b) practical. No word of it a lie, driving it is at least 80% as much fun as driving my old 911 was.)
- MG, absolutely shit experience, the salesman was literally trying to scam us by making up stuff that doesn't exist
- Nissan, Toyota, Citroen - garbage customer service, dealing with salespeople felt like being a tasty prey surrounded by lions
- Volkswagen - pretty good just.....cheap. like, the bare minimum of what I'd consider acceptable. Heavy push to upsell you stuff.
- Mercedes - best experience I had, actual friendly salespeople, didn't feel like I was being scammed, post-sales support was phenomenal, would seriously consider another Mercedes just for that
- Volvo - purchase experience was very good, haggled down a lot and it didn't seem like a huge deal, but we'll see about their post-purchase experience, have a service coming up and they've been trying to upsell me stuff already which I think is a bit dodgy. Meh, time will tell.
- Range Rover - despite being a luxury brand every single dealership of theirs treats the customer like a pest to get rid of. You know why? Because the average waiting time for a new RR is about 12 month+. They know they will sell cars no matter what,so why bother.
But yeah, obviously your milage will vary.
And there's one other thing - dealerships still have one good function. At least here in UK and EU it's the seller who sold you a product, so if something goes wrong your have your local dealership you can sue or pursue to make you whole. Would you do the same if it was a direct relationship with the manufacturer? If say, Volvo refuses to fix my car, can I go and sue Volvo? No, I'd use the entire strength of the customer protection system in this country to get the seller(the dealership) to fix my car, regardless of what the manufacturer says.
Worse for the dealer, everybody walks in having done their research. Most people know exactly how much the dealer paid for the car, and want it for that price leaving the dealer with nothing. There is thus no reason to treat the customer well when there isn't even any money to make. In fact the biggest dealers sell every car at a loss, making it up in factory incentives and post sales tactics which are bad for customer service, but what the customer really wants.
Most people don't buy enough cars to know what good sales actually would be. If you really want to know what good service is you need to average more than one car a month (sometimes it is every month, sometimes it is a large order every year). These customers are rare (always a business), but they do get a completely different experience as there is real reason to keep them happy.
For a dealer though sales are a distraction. They only sell cars at all because that is a cost of doing business to get the parts and service business. These are the real money maker. The first couple years they get everything (and the factory pays not the customer, always nice to tell someone there is no charge for major work). Many are trying to make themselves good places to go even after warranty is expired (that is reasonable prices).
The above applies to new cars only. Used car sales is completely different. (most new car dealers also make a ton of money on used car sales)
Though, the dealers could still screw you on trade-ins or on selling used cars.
I don't love dealers and can't say my last experience about a decade ago was great. But it definitely helps if you don't need financing and are prepared to just donate your old clunker if you don't get offered enough.
I contend that even if Tesla made normal ICE vehicles, their no dealer strategy is a long term win. Dealers are horrible. The trickery to buy and sell a car is terrible.