You're rolling your eyes, but you're not that far from wrong. Earth's geological processes have buried most of the heavier elements in the core, where it's beyond reach. The concentration of platinum-group metals is far, far higher in metallic asteroids than it is in the Earth's crust.

For ruthenium, rhodium and palladium we are probably better off reprocessing nuclear waste. Especially rhodium is rare on Earth btu formed in fairly high yield during nuclear fission.

No, but you can definitely try and only go to those that are.