I think that allows Tesla to claim that this is a 35K car because that is the base price of the car. Some of the tax structures work off the base price of a car instead of as delivered price of a car.
Heck, the VIN itself has no distinction between performance and non-performance Model 3. That could be a plus from insurance perspective! When the time comes to buy Chinese made aftermarket spare parts for my car from say AAP or Amazon, they will not be able to decode the VIN to send me the correct parts. (OK, I am kidding, just a little bit about the AAP/Amazon)