Only people that complain about the price are those who aren't wealthy enough to be in the lf-a buyers demographic anyway. You might also complain about the price of a veyron but that didn't stop them from selling.
Other car makers may do the same but they do it more discretely. But what do you excpet from Toyota?
If I were a millionaire and would encounter the
"We have to check if you are worthy of being our customer" behavior, I'd simply laugh, buy a car from the competition, drive to the Lexus dealership in it and show them the middle finger, making sure they'll see it.
Lexus has to win customers, has to convince them into buying their car, for crying out loud. Ferrari has got a reputation for decades, Lamborghini has got a reputation for decades, Aston Martin, too. They can get away with arrogance (not that I'm saying they are arrogant) and file it under "brand character".
But Lexus simply can't. Lexus doesn't have a character. It's just a name without meaning to sports car enthusiasts. It has to earn reputation first. You cannot move to a new neighborhood and as the new kid on the block stand in the middle of a playground and shout
"Yo, fellows. I'm the new one here. Line up in front of me, if you wanna be my friend. I'll pick out the worthy ones."
You'll get your face punched -- and rightly so -- if you'd do that.
Well they made the AW11 MR2, SW22 MR2, all the cool old rwd celica's and the rally winning 4wd celicas, gt-2000, AE86, chaser, and finally the mk3 and mk4 supras. How many more affordable and exciting cars do they need to make?
Firstly I'm talking about Lexus as a brand. Since Toyota always seemed so eager to make a distinction between normal Toyotas and Lexuses, I think it's fair to see and treat Lexus as an own brand without any connection to sporty Toyota models of the past.
Secondly, don't forget that Toyota has a very fragmented global strategy. Toyota doesn't play the same role here in Europe, as it does in Australia or in the USA. They are not even the No. 1 importer in Germany, that place goes to Renault.
So almost nothing of what you listed above, sounds familiar to me or has a meaning or reputation here, because either the models have been ditched long ago or they were never sold in larger numbers to make them memorable for car enthusiasts.
Instead Toyota concentrated on selling heavy, thirsty trucks in the USA and is famous here in Europe for being representative of being not representative for anything. Their last really successful advertising campaign here dates back to the 1980's (!) and Lexus models sell in two-digit numbers per year.
Thus you'd expect Lexus to put an emphasis on the European market, when they come up with a super car. The market with the highest brand diversity, where more car makers compete with each other, than anywhere in the world, where the most famous race tracks are and where we have the last unlimited roads in the world.
But that won't go well, if you go against the established super car makers (and their pampered customers) with such arrogance...