Reasons why a return of premium payout might be delayed for more than a year?

Hi. I don’t really know anything about life insurance, except what I’ve searched for and read from a few google searches that didn’t help much for this specific inquiry.

TL;DR: Are insurance companies experiencing delays right now with large “ROP” payouts or surrender payouts? Or however that works when a person had a policy that allows them to cash out/receive accumulated payments back before death?

Too Long Version: Basically, my wife has a childhood friend that I don’t really know. They went to the same schools together. I’ve only met this friend a few times as we live in different states, and as such I don’t have a good personal judge of character about her. But my wife trusts almost everything she says when they talk and message. To the point that I’m getting tired of hearing about this.

The story is that this friend paid on a 20 year return of premium plan. The timeline fits with our age as we entered the workforce about 25 years ago. I do know that this friend has a well-paying job and a nice house, just to clarify that she likely could have afforded such a policy. Anyway it came up in 2021 but the insurance company is refusing to pay out because there’s a “backlog of payouts” being processed since the pandemic.

I’ve heard a few different stories about the insurance company going through a merger, lawyers getting involved, additional interest being added to make up for it, some other stuff I probably blocked out, but to me none of it adds up. It almost always has something to do with the pandemic. I feel like this friend just made up a story and keeps running with it. My wife thinks her friend is going to get a big lumpsum and they’re going to be taking multiple “girl cruises” and “spendcations” and all kinds of other fantastical things soon.

I’ve made sure several times that my wife isn’t going to start blowing our regular budget or do anything crazy, but I feel like her friend is just leading her down a road to future disappointment. Her friend has been talking about this since at least summer of 2021, so this payout would now be about 16 months delayed if it was true. My wife and I didn’t really have an argument about it today because I chose not to push the issue with her, but it has been a sore subject between us. At least once a month it feels like my wife mentions “friend said this or that about it” and I just roll my eyes. AITA? Are insurance companies experiencing delays right now with these types of payouts?