If there were no or few rare earths and the deal only asked for 50% of this small/non-existant resource then Ukraine would have signed it.
They didn't sign it in part because it asked for basically half the countries mineral resources, gas, oil, coal etc.
Which makes more sense if, to your point, the deal was to make an unreasonable offer that couldn't be accepted, and use that to make the current Ukraine government look bad.
If there were no or few rare earths and the deal only asked for 50% of this small/non-existant resource then Ukraine would have signed it.
They didn't sign it in part because it asked for basically half the countries mineral resources, gas, oil, coal etc.
Which makes more sense if, to your point, the deal was to make an unreasonable offer that couldn't be accepted, and use that to make the current Ukraine government look bad.