I think you're talking about batteries from nearly 15 years ago, which did degrade significantly with age and/or use. There has been a significant and noticeable improvement since then. The person you were taking to did say today's batteries.
It really depends on where you live. There are some parts of the world where environmental factors like ocean humidity or winter road salting will cause a car's frame to rust through in a few years if you're not careful. Look up the Rust Belt for an example.
On the other hand, if you live somewhere warm and dry, your car's frame and body will outlast its original mechanical components.
"Rust Belt" isn't literal, it refers to an area of the US where industrial manufacturing declined significant in the second half of the 20th century. It's called that in part at least because its previous moniker was "Steel Belt".
I have never had an issue with either of those things. On road trips, there are plenty of fast ev chargers these days. And my EV already goes 320mi on a full charge. You don't want to sit at max charge for long anyway. I only charge to 50% and haven't had much range anxiety. Realistically it's better than gas, because at home it charges overnight (even to 100%).
Charging on road trips at a fast charger takes as long as a quick trip to the bathroom and grabbing a bite to eat.
Sounds nice. In much of the US it's not at all that easy to find fast chargers and longer lasting and quicker charging batteries would significantly help EV adoption here.
Out of curiosity, have you tried? Genuinely asking. Because I thought the same before I caved and bought mine. I've now gone on multi-thousand mile road trips with no issues. But I acknowledge there are places that need more chargers.
Have electric hybrid which obviously isn't the same thing, but was considering going full EV. With the hybrid I am always on the lookout for places to charge to avoid gas and keep preconditioning option going. Often difficult to find a charging station never mind fast charging. I've paid attention to the 200mile mark to imagine what it would look like if I didn't have the gas backup and it's not pretty. Sure you could do it with some patience and careful planning, but in my country unless you are staying near a coast, EV really becomes less practical for long distance traveling.