NdFeB substitution, page-14

I totally agree with your statement "there is no alternative to RE for any application that RE makes possible’." A Few qualifiers are needed the biggest is (in the way that REEs do it). That is putting your thinking in a very small box. The goal is to make rotary energy from Electric power efficiently. When you take a wider view many possibilities open up. You can ask the questions are perm magnets needed at all? Magnetic coupling has been used for over 150 years. Is there a better way? Dropping Fossell fuels for Eletric has cause the motor market to grow exponentially. with that growth will come many new ideas. I have no idea which ones may win but this exciting growth will cause change. Think a little wider than the way things are done today. All sort of possibilities open up.

Will it happen right away Very unlikely. Look out a decade or two and the possibility are limitless.

do not forget right now Perm magnet motors are limited as to their max power. Tesla until the mod 3 did not use Perm mag motors for this reason.
Today that limit has increased a lot. It is still one of the reasons that larger, faster cars have 3 and 4 perm magnet traction motors.