waspy, you are right - the original contract was for TWO helos, the first ones (5 total) were to land on the WH lawn in 2008, and were modified just a bit (same rotors and such, new comms and other protection gear). They didnt have to met the more stringent Increment II criteria, which are very very challenging. The Increment I had to meet basic marine hot performance.
In Dec 2003, the formal criteria were lowered to allow the EH to hover IGE because the Increment I EH would not hover OGE (I recall precisely when the criteria were watered down, and our surprise since we didnt ask for it, because we were OK in hover perf.) In a competition, you track every nuance, sort of like playing battleship to guess where your opponant is weak, and where you are weak. The reduction to HIGE Increment I was allowed precisely when the cabin width popped up as a new requirement, even though the deficiencies of the last generation VH never mentioned cabin width at all. We surmised then that the playing field was being leveled by the White House, and the EH perf was marginal, so they invented a new criteria that was clearly an EH attribute (the EH is 17" wider than the H-92). These new criteria appeared 1 week after the Navy team briefed the White House staff on the status of the competition.
When the winner was announced, the Navy said that the performance of the H-92 was "purple" which means outstanding, and the cabin comfort was "green" which means satisfactory. The EH performance was green and its cabin comfort was purple (I am sure of these ratings, I slept for months with them floating before my eyes.) The win was based on the Navy deciding that the EH could be made ready for increment I 5 months faster than the H-92. THAT is why the Sikorsky guys are flooding my email box with notes, since the LM team was given a year more many months back, and now they want to punt the Increment I.