Ref your edit Something else I was going to pick up on but distracted from the argument - is Batteries.
Elon might be 'good' at batteries, and they are a fairly efficient way of directly storing electrical energy, but but they sure are heavy. Transporting batteries to Mars takes a lot of payload.
Storing gasses however...... There's an electicity-to-gas production facility that is an essential part of the mission - and storage tanks - well we sure brought a couple of big ones of those. Even small tanks as cargo are fairly light-weight (and space-efficient if you can store something in them for the journey).
Try reading The Martian. Its not bad. Better than the film.