I hope it's on the way, but I don't think the Pioneer Na is yet a sign of this revolution. This detailed review didn't leave me in a hurry to go get one, anyway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoZ_g_MShTw
The idea with really cheap batteries is that they don't need good energy density. You just swap them every so often and put the one you aren't using in the charging rack. You could even carry your own reserve energy with you!
We used to have swappable batteries in virtually all of portable electronics. You could even get them in a rechargeable accumulator format. Virtually all of portable electronics has integrated batteries.
Yeah but AAs suck, and the newer more advanced batteries all have different voltages and require different charge circuitries so it’s hard to create a new standard for them.
Why do you think AA suck ? It’s the chemistry, not the standard size, voltage or swappability right? 18650 and 21700 also have those assets. Some modern devices let you swap 18650.
Every chemistry outputs a different voltage and requires different charge controllers. So sure we could have created a standard lithium size but it would have just locked us in to one chemistry again which will eventually be obsolete. 18650s are also too bulky for most applications. Usually you want flat rectangles. Another benefit of the proprietary batteries is they can completely fill the space available rather than being constrained by the standard.