Earlier quoted context omitted.
Li-Ion is nearly as old as NiMH. They coexisted for a long time, on very different price levels. When people think of battery progress, they usually just think of how LiIon got cheap enough for a use case that was on NiMH before. That certainly is also progress, but of a very differed kind than what they think it was.
I think it is clear progress if manufacturing becomes so much cheaper that the technology is actually available to more people.
It is progress, but because of the price-enabled technology switch, there are many misconceptions the kind of progress and its expected continuation. Outside of fixed installations, price only translates to capacity when there is a next level technology available at a higher price point. I don't see that now.
We might be left to forever squeeze out the last remaining bits of inefficiency from current technology (non-reacting mass fraction due to insufficient surface area per mass?)