What we need to do is find an alternative to the rare earth metal magnets, plain and simple, just like we need to start producing an alternative to petroleum. The sooner we can stick it to the Persians, Arabs, and Venezuelans the better!
Lavoisier was well on his way to determining the atomic table of weights when his funding dried up and he was forced to take a government position as a tax collector, unfortunately for him, shortly after the guillotine was invented the revolution broke out and tax collectors were among the first to experience its remarkable efficacy.
Some substitutes are as rare as these minerals you so blithely propose to displace.