Actually I see little reason why unlocking doors and holding them unlocked should not be mandatory in crash. On average that must be the preferable outcome.

But we have those rear seat "child safety" locks that could have had the same effect.

And you can't always prevent someone from doing something fatally stupid.

Then whether or not you select the additional option of electric door locks, the mechanical everyday handles remain the primary way each driver or passenger gets in and out most of the time.

So that type of familiarity could always be taken for granted, if someone has gotten in and out at least once, they have historically almost always been familiar with the mechanical handles to an extent just doing so.

And these type of victims had probably never had a chance to have even routinely gotten out of a Cybertruck for their first time, since the vehicle itself is still not very common.

For that reason the mechanical handles need to be not just the primary method of egress, but more prominent than average to make up the difference. Especially from the inside, and like the best-established motor companies have done, the electric locks are "simply" an augmented version of the underlying mechanical ones which remain in place and functional not just for nostalgic reasons.

Automatic windows and electric locks go together in ways that you really have to think about if you're going to match those who started decades earlier. Maybe that's why so many copied each other except for rare situations like this.