I assumed instead they were soft compound tires with a low treadwear number. Nice for "sport" driving but they wear very quickly.

All the people claiming EVs wear tires faster probably don't have the slightest idea that tires even have treadwear ratings. That coupled with the total uselessness of personal anecdotes...

Performance oriented EVs, just like performance oriented ICE cars, are going to have softer, stickier tires that wear faster.