And fewer moving parts means less expensive maintenance, generally. Granted, replacing a battery can get expensive, but if you’re not going all that far anyway, the battery’s range dropping from 400km to 200km after 12 years or so might not be a big deal. That said, the boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness might mean you’re stuck with ICE vehicles for a while if you can’t get a loan for a comparable amount of time.
Edit: after looking it up, that’s also assuming a worst case loss, average range is now roughly 460km, getting better, and it’s still at ~78% capacity 10 years later.
I think that’s why this sort of phrase never made much sense to me, because in the same sense that the broken clock is right, a working clock with an offset (technically all of them) is almost never right (as you mention). Maybe it extends the metaphor, though, because while the working clock is never completely accurate, it’s much more useful by being closer to the truth the vast majority of the time.