Yes of course, you can limit the current in VFD. With VFD actualy you will have a soft start, the VFD is more sophisticated device than a soft starter. If the load is a fan (VFD for HVAC?) , then it's even more simple because the load is very small at low rpms, so at the start the all load is basicly the acceleration of rotor and blades inertia, you can set large ramp time - slow acceleration and there will be no problems.
The short answer: they were both designed to do what they needed to do. One just cost more to do it.
The long answer: Horsepower is proportional to speed. If you could spin that industrial motor as fast as the Tesla motor could spin, it might get close to the same horsepower - just before it shatters into a thousand flying pieces. The industrial motor was designed to spin at one relatively slow speed, determined by the 60 Hz line frequency, and its horsepower specification reflects that. It could be driven faster with a variable-frequency drive, but at a minimum, the bearings would give out before it even came close to the Tesla's speed.
And there are other things added to the Tesla motor to help provide horsepower, besides bearings and a rotor that can take that velocity. The windings can take much more current and the cooling is pretty critical. And as you mentioned, the drive electronics are more sophisticated than what you would find in an industrial environment.
Simply put, one is an industrial workhorse, and the other is an thoroughbred racehorse.
Best Answer
Induction motor torque is best visualized against "slip" (the difference between synchronous speed and actual speed): -
I assume by maximum torque you mean breakdown torque so the graph above should help. If full-load torque is at 5% slip then breakdown torque will be about 25% slip but the numerical detail depends entirely on the specific motor.
This graph shows a motor run at different speeds from a variable frequency drive: -
If you took the time and calculated percentage slip for full-load torque you would see that for the motor above it would be about 5% at a drive frequency of 50 Hz and fall to about 20% for a drive frequency of 20 Hz.
Maximum (breakdown) torque will be slightly more exaggerated at lower speeds. For instance, with a 10 Hz drive frequency, breakdown torque occurs at about 50% slip whereas for a drive frequency of 50 Hz it occurs at about 30% slip.
See this article (entitled Module 6: A.C. Electrical Machines for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles) for picture above and other useful information.