Hydrogen [...] is basically not present in nature.
I am probably misunderstanding the whole "most abundant element in the universe" thing. Can you explain?
Hydrogen the atom is very common but what is needed is hydrogen the gas i.e. molecular hydrogen or H2. Hydrogen is very reactive so it's usually always bound up, for example in water. Stripping off the hydrogen atoms into H2 gas is energy intensive.
Since it's so reactive, it's both a pain to handle and to extract unless you have a lot of natural gas reserves, where it's relatively abundant.
Or you find it in the interstellar medium but I mean good luck mining a nebula.
So you need to dump a bunch of energy in creating a very difficult to handle material. In comparison, battery tech gets 7-10% better each year and has the immense economies of scale of electronics, electric motors, and power electronics all driving down cost and increasing competition.
There's a reason oil and gas companies propelled a lot of this development.