This is a more sensible of a statement, although platform sharing and badge engineering are a bit of distant from each other concepts. Hopefully we all understand this.
This really is a fair and challenging question. I bought an Exige with pretty much a freedom to buy any car up to £100k with really no limitations (only one being able to fit in a small carry on suitcase while driving about 100mi one way). I've been sold on the nature of direct connection to the road (I struggle to drive "fully normal" cars) with decent amount of performance. I'm still very happy with these. Only let down's were multiple unexplainable and unjustifiable quality faults and variable dealers network quality when it comes to service.
I don't think I'm going to change the car in 18 months from now, but I may consider buying one more (new). At the moment the next best most immediate candidate would probably be a baby McLaren in specification to my liking (nothing ridiculous, just the way I'd want it to be), while I'm also keen to see what C8 Corvette (and hopefully soon to be announced Z06) is going to be like; I'd also try to get a feel for R8 V10 and maybe (but less likely) GT-R or AMG GT. So then for Lotus to really be in the list, it would need to either be a major step up from (but same unique type of) my Sport 350 (manufacturing quality at the level of an average Porsche, 30-50% more power and preserved steering/feeling/weight of a car), or a competitive car with big character (read engine and design) and more GT feel, while also more special driving feel than the alternarives. Both are rather tough things to achieve, admittably.