.....innovate ...
You seem to confuse improvement with innovation.
The AC induction motor as used in pre model 3 is technology dating back to 1887 and was invented by Nikola Tesla
As it is extremely inefficient to take DC power source (battery) run it through a inverter to power AC motor, from model 3 onward the older tech DC motor is used.
Half a mile queue and hours of waiting to get free spot and then hours of charging
https://youtu.be/UqEwLle8xKUAs for the electric car, in crypto term you would call it an "altcoin"

Using this mentality, we could go much further back, to the ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians... So everyone that followed was/is just "improving" over their theories... Does this sound fair to you?
Both Tesla and Musk can be called innovators. In their own fields and epochs. Putting a theory to good practice isn't a mere "improvement".