From the article:
"Lithium is an essential component of the batteries that power many electric vehicles and electronic devices. Listed as a critical mineral..."
If lithium is indeed "a critical" mineral, then we shouldn't be wasting it by using so much of it for the production of giant disposable batteries to go into vehicles, of all things (vehicles which can be better-powered through other resources, such as petroleum).
We should save and husband its mining and resource development for other applications in which it is indeed, "critical"...