A lithium battery is made of lithium compounds not raw lithium. Expecting it to react the same way as pure lithium is a profound misunderstanding of basic chemistry.

Kind of like when people commonly refer to table salt as “sodium”. Sodium is a highly caustic and reactive metal. The metal sodium is profoundly different than the salt called sodium chloride. Sharing a specific type of element means nothing when comparing compounds.

You know, you could have left it at the first sentence. There's no need to incorrectly assume what my expectations were or the source of the misunderstanding.