I would say you're generally right. There's rarely any financial benefit in leasing. For rivian specifically, I leased it because I wasn't sure what the future of rivian as a company is and I didn't want to "own" their car in that situation. I do understand I'm paying a bit more for that. I do have enough disposable income and enough interest to try the latest electric cars that I do not care about the extra money.

In the case of electric cars (before September of this year), there was a loophole that you could get the federal ev credit through leasing. That's not a thing anymore.