I know what you mean. A few envious folks try the “nice Ferrari” thing as a wind up. Some people genuinely get it wrong. It’s usually easy to tell from the tone.
If you haven’t had a Lotus before you’ll find you almost always get positive reactions, curiosity and courtesy.
I’ve had strangers wander over at the petrol station to look and chat about my Evora, people let me out of side roads and even move over to let me pass on motorways. There’s a 48 page thread on TLF “people’s reactions to my Evora”!
I expect we’ll see this even more with the Emira.