How is that all that damaging? I’m sure those batteries are recycled in basically all cases and yes, I’d expect battery replacement does indeed forestall replacement for many phones.
The most common processes for recycling lithium ion and lithium polymer batteries are not environmentally friendly. They consume a lot of water and energy and produce toxic byproducts the require further processing and energy to be rendered safe.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.1c02602