Freighters, after several hull losses, can no longer carry these batteries as cargo.
Not really.
We carry them almost on a daily basis (between 5 to 20 tons) on both domestic and international sectors, including to/from FAA land. I am sure many other cargo operators do the same. They are not even listed as DGR goods on our NOTOCs.
If the 787 problem is traced to the batteries as main culprit, I wonder how difficult it would be to simply change them from Li-ion to traditional lead batteries. Sounds like the more sensible solution.