Indeed! I bought that car because there was $10K in government cheese against a cost of around $30K. It meant I got a decent car, got to experience EV ownership (that I was curious about/interested in), and all for ~$20K.

The alternative for me was never going to be a $50K EV, but rather a $10K used ICE car. I'm happy with the choice overall and while we can technically afford any new car we wanted, spending more than that felt wasteful, so the tradeoffs you mention are entirely real forces on both Nissan and prospective Leaf buyers.