This will be the fifth attempt by the Army to replace the OH-58. What we may be seeing here is Bell taking a page from Boeing's play book on how they won T-X.
The performance requirements for FARA really don't push the envelope very much. Bell may have looked at that, and analyzed the RFP and found that Army isn't willing to pay very much extra for performance exceeding the threshold and objective specifications. So, they're bidding a good conventional design, based on technology developed for the 525, that meets the basic requirements and can come in at a low price. That's exactly how Boeing won T-X.