There is a cost diff for Tesla, between these two scenarios. But it is subtle. In the cheaper variant of the two he cited, that battery is going to have (possibly) more charge buffer remaining when it's ostensibly "empty". AFAICT. Whereas that more expensive variant will not. Again, assuming otherwise identical. So in theory that more expensive variant is more likely to have more customers who reach empty, get stuck, need towing, complain, etc. Again this is just AFAICT based on info at hand. In this theory, Tesla is saying, "Fine if you truly want to squeeze out more miles, we'll let you, but to compensate us for risk of more complaints, we'd like a little more money."

again, just a theory. may be more complex than this.