we've been through this before
yes, he is UFA not RFA for the reasons you gave. not sure if club knew when contract raised about FA effect of front-loading (it was before FA introduced)
anyway, we all disagree about how they interpret it.....should be based on average contract salary
finally, bottom line is that most posters here agreed that (in reality) there is no practical difference between UFA and RFA if a player really wants to go