No, because with hydrogen we don't have working prototypes nor a track record improvement. Maybe there is a lighter tank and fuel cell combo. Maybe there isn't. You can't argue maybe there isn't a better battery chemistry than what we have on the roads because we have better chemistries in the lab, in production and in some cases on roads in China.
This feels like a chicken and egg situation. There isn’t sufficient research or funding yet to write off hydrogen. If there were similar amounts of money spent in hydrogen compared to batteries, we could have a better sense of what’s possible and make a choice towards one or the other. But today, this comes off to me like saying nothing better is possible than what we already know, which to me feels unimaginative.
Plenty of battery chemistries don't use cobalt, e.g. LFP.
> we have lithium only for around 2,8 billion batteries
Again, assuming current chemistries. Materials are not a cliff for EVs. Assuming zero progress on LFP or e.g. sodium chemistries, we have decades of throwing away batteries to go through.
> recovery of lithium from spent batteries remains a niche market
Of course. Lithium is cheap. Why would you bother with expensive recovery when there is still cheap lithium all around?