Generally, leasing a car (and life in general) has become more expensive and, apart from the odd discounted deal, the monthly payments have gone up quite a bit. Motability can’t increase their monthly payments so they have to front-load the prices, because their prices are governed by what, if any, discount the manufacturer offers them, is the way I see it. The days of low interest rates, cheap raw materials and cheap motoring are behind us, it seems.
This article is about a year old but it answered some questions for me https://www.letstalkleasing.co.uk/news/industry-news/Why-have-some-car-lease-costs-increased-a-lot-in-2023#:~:text=Automakers%20periodically%20adjust%20their%20prices,depreciation%20over%20the%20lease%20term.