Tesla doesn't make a profit if they took the credits away
Tell that to the auto makers buying the credits from Tesla because they are unable to compete with Tesla, and clearly unable to produce compelling EV's. I'm sure the nuance you are highlighting is troubling to them, namely, that auto makers are losing ref:
https://ir.tesla.com/static-files/f41f4254-f1cc-4929-a0b6-6623b00475a6
Uhm, what about absolute sales numbers?
This is just relative change, in which case, you can make conclusion that "Tesla is seeing growth in sale unlike most other manufacturers" but not something like "the other automakers can't compete".
Just as a simple example, Manufacture A saw growth from 5,000 to 5,500 sales, while Manufacturer B saw decline from 100,000 to 80,000. Yeah A saw growth, but in the end the sales are still a drop in the bucket compared to B.