They don't re-charge the car mid-race (and never have); they simply change between two cars, and that's what they're getting rid of.

I'm not sure what makes that farcical - in the first three seasons, the car swap was required because battery capacities were too low to power the car for the whole race. Now the battery capacity requirement is double - isn't this pushing battery development forward?

The batteries have been, and remain, standard parts, used by all teams. There's no on-track competition pushing battery development forward, they're just put out to tender every few years by the organisers.