Priorities. Materials used in batteries are something that can be managed, like any other toxic industrial chemicals. Emissions go up in the air, and are creating an extinction-level threat. It's important to think of the former, but trying to turn it into a deal-breaker is just suicidal.

A justification of those priorities would include an explanation on why hydrogen is being pretty much ignored apart from niche uses.

I am not an expert so probably don't know many issues but on the face of it hydrogen seems much less disruptive than batteries.

Also, it is a bit easy to claim that we need to rush and have the luxury to make bad decisions. We have had decades and still have decades, and cannot change the whole infrastructure again in 10-20 years...

Hydrogen is generally very hard to store.

Batteries have downsides but apart from them, they do work.

Hydrogen can either be stored cryogenically (which is problematic in a car), or compressed. In the latter case, hydrogen leaks out through the metal (because its atoms are so small) and worse still, causes embrittlement of the metal.

So while we know how to build a battery car today, which is safe and stable, it's much less the case for hydrogen. It's not like you can take eg LNG car tech and just fill it with hydrogen.