So I recently needed a special cable to make some old gear work. It was only available from a single source and they charged me an arm and a half for it. Why a

So I recently needed a special cable to make some old gear work. It was only available from a single source and they charged me an arm and a half for it. Why am I telling you all of this? Because the price of something has very, very, very, very, very little to do with how feasible something is, how much work is required on a fundamental level. So what? Recycling lithium isn't profitable right now this very instant? Because the price is too high? Apart from the circular logic here, this means nothing. (This kind of thinking is disappointingly common here. We will never get anywhere when we do some adhoc "price" analysis on every new technology and obviously deduce it's infeasible and should not be explored. Cars were economically infeasible back when you bought petrol from the pharmacy.)