Don't forget that it's perfectly possible to have placed a deposit well over 2 years ago, but have ended up slightly over the particular dealer's initial FE1.0 allocation count. Customers have had radically different access to FE1.0 cars depending on which dealer they happened to order through, and even some people who ordered in 2021 have been "bumped" to an FE2.0 with higher cost.
And don't forget, not all of us live terminally-online lives where the minutiae of Lotus's mercurial pricing policies are obvious to (or even known by) the customer.
I think it's perfectly possible that this guy has been waiting for years for a car, the dealer finally informed him it was time to place his "hard" factory order, and gave him a new palette of colors (FE2.0), from which he chose white. The new price could have been as much of a surprise as the additional color options. And taking a big step back from what we've all accommodated ourselves to... he's not wrong. The price that was quoted when he placed his deposit is NOT being honored.