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There certainly are things that can be done to increase the output power of the i3... electric motors are not "magic". As long as the applied current, and the resulting stator magnetic field, isn't strong enough to demagnetize the permanent rotor magnets... or the heat build-up doesn't hit the Curie point of the permanent magnets, it won't permanently affect the motor. All of these things are monitored in real-time by the controller to prevent any possibility of such issues.
In fact, the pre-production test mule car (before the i3 chassis was ready) had more power, and it was 100% the same major components as the production car has. As the information I read told it (I'll keep looking for it, I didn't bookmark it!) there was a "little excessive wear" on the output of the final drive... possibly the splined output shaft that didn't engage deep enough, or just a loose fitment, so BMW backed the output power off a little for production.
So, we know that every supporting system is capable of more power... controller current, motor, battery, and cooling for all.
Also, the 2018 i3-S has more power (184hp), most likely restoring some of the original power after improving the part(s) that were experiencing wear... or the 'wear' was determined to be less than they feared. (could be determined by comparing part numbers between 2017/2018 parts)
Remember, all we're talking about is a few seconds at a time... initial acceleration.
Is it "proper"?
Cars are still an expansion/expression of our own personality... or else we'd all be driving something much cheaper. If we few choose to upgrade the acceleration of our cars, so be it... it's not like we're going to affect your car driving experience... you're just going to see our tail-lights more often.
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