In your hypothetical scenario, do you care whether the batteries are recoverable and reusable? If not, then you lose a lot of the benefit of electrification.
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I did think about going to the kind of electrochemical reactions which might provide power to a motor. I believe the flow batteries are low power density binary fluid systems so not very flight suitable.
So then I went to ascent phase. Detachable battery with glide home. Keep smaller battery for controlled descent phase.
Imagine if there were large fields (or lakes) every few hundred miles designated as drop zones where huge battery packs would be parachuted down into and recovered every couple weeks, from cross-country commercial flights.
I'm sure there are a million problems with it, but you never know.
Or flying "recharge" stations where appropriately sized drones carrying a new set of batteries (not necessarily all of them) would dock with the aircraft, push the new batteries into a receptacle while taking the old ones on board, then separate from the plane and land to the closest ground station for recharging until next plane to service.
This is an interesting idea, but it would be most efficient if the battery drops were frequent. Maybe every few miles instead of every few hundred. Of course the more modular you make the battery, the more overhead you have in chutes, battery housings, etc.