Hell no, it's not better! I know this one of those friend-of-a-friend things, but a guy I trust has friend who called Apple to get the battery in his iPod replaced. In short, tech support told him he could send it in, but since it was a year and a half old, it would cost $260. Replacing the iPod completely (retail) was $280.

After much ranting and pressing the tech support guy, it turns out the iPods have a built-in battery life (non-user-servicable) of 18 months. Built-in obsolescence.