You would be surprised at how dumb "real owners" of cars are. In my former life as a engineer at DaimlerChrysler part of my job was doing warranty inspections on engines that had failed. You could tell the problem just my checking the mileage of the engine without even looking at it. One in a bunch was a factory problem, which would fail around <1000 miles. The overwhelming majority failed around 25,000, and resulted from the owner never changing the oil. Just be cause a car is expensive doesn't mean the purchaser is knowledgeable or even has common sense. The sad part of engineering is that you have to assume that your average customer is of below average intelligence.
I don't doubt this, at all. I would suppose that the consumer of a Model S might be a bit more savvy regarding such things. It's a niche car that, for the most part, will be purchased by enthusiasts at this point. Wouldn't you agree?
I don't know. If you go to LA, you regularly see young women (who obviously can be car enthusiasts, but are also generally not know to be very knowledgeable owners; sorry to be a sexist pig, but like I said, I've seen a lot of unnecessary failures) driving cars like the M6 or the RS5, cars that are similar in price range and performance. Style is the most important thing to many consumers. For this class of cars you will always have the buyers that love them to death, but that's not who the idiot proof features are designed for.