Many things can happen in the realm of manufacturing. It is possible there was a whole batch of bad lever caps and this is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.
It may have started with a new employee in assembly without much knowledge of how things are supposed to work. Then when a replacement was requested for one with a bent lever, an employee went to the parts bin and pulled defective stock without noticing the cam was wrong.
If this is the case there may be a small panic going on at LN presently. They may have to unpack every #8 plane to check the lever cap and they are finding a whole production run came through faulty. That would explain the delayed response.
From experience at my former employment involving assembly and parts management, it isn't common for many employees to notice much around the work environment other than the clock. Many won't even question a part that looks different from what they have used in the past. They will just put it on an assembly and move it to the next stage.
Hopefully this will all work out for the best.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)