I'm not sure the premise of
I'm not sure the premise of your argument is valid. 80% of our daily commute is 40 miles or less, something all EVs can accommodate. Not too many of us drive 300 miles a day to get to work. The problem is that consumers don't really know what they want, they are being told what they need. A big difference. The biggest problem is consumers believe that for that 1% to 20 of the time their driving distance is greater than 40 miles, they would need a car with more range. All you have to do these days is rent or use a car sharing service which is cheaper in terms of cost ownership and insurance.
When we look back at the slow pace of development and efficiency of the gasoline motor over a century, what battery technology has done in 6 years is nothing more than astonishing. Think about it, a start up offers a car that rivals others in its price bracket with a 260 mile range (something most M3 or M5 have anyway) with nothing more than common laptop batteries. I don't see that as failing, even less "miserably".
Hybrids dominate for now but plug-in hybrids will challenge that notion the next few years. Your average American family owns more than one car which makes the whole EV for local driving and PHEV for longer distances a no-brainer. Refuelable batteries, or hydrogen makes sense but it has a lot of obstacles to deal with compared to what pure battery vehicles offer now, without getting into how much more they will tomorrow. I don't see where you find that "rapidly expanding renewable infrastructure" when talking about hydrogen. Hydrogen cannot have an transportation or storage infrastructure as of yet. Maybe you mean alternative energy systems such as solar, hydro and wind? In that case, yes.
I can assure not too many people talk about hydrogen in Europe and having lived in Japan, hydrogen is a futuristic concept to all. In both places they talk more about battery, which might be "ancient" as you mention, but certain offer the most potential the quickest. One thing we can agree is yes, politics always drag down the debate on both side, they are equally inapt to make business and technical decisions.