Yeah, you sound like you know
Yeah, you sound like you know a lot about hybrids... do a google search on "Prius taxi", you will discover a sea of evidence to disprove your claims about the 200,000 miles battery replacement. The Taxi industry praise the Prius due to the longer lasting brake pads, lower maintenance requirements and hence cost, battery is a non-issue (over 500,000 miles in some taxi), and deliver real world fuel savings. Conventional cars generally cost must higher than the Prius or any Toyota hybrids in maintenance.
Yes, they cost more to buy, but if you consider all these factors and the engineering in the Prius, it's money well spent. Not to mention you get them back if you sell the car, so the debate of spending more is a non-argument... the whole article is a total waste of time.