Yes, but the “demand” that you are talking about is for cheap on the consumer side, not on the producer side. It may (arguably) still be cheap food on the producer cost side, but the consumer price side has gone insane. The quality definitely is shit.
I searched the specs on the battery, and the same exact battery with leads already soldered to it came up from quite a few different sources. Some of them had a small white 2-pin connector, I’m not sure if it would be compatible with the green one that is on the battery in the article, but it would be an easy fix for somebody into electronics (even with parts and tools off Amazon, if not DigiKey or something). All that said, it’s still bullshit the company is still around but isn’t supporting a 10 year old $100,000 mobility device relied on by someone who is disabled. The headline makes it sound like he’s screwed though, and that’s hardly the case. This is an easy fix.