Sadly, until recently that has been the case. Here’s the exiftool list of all the Lens* tags in a NEF from my D7000, -n for the raw metadata:
glenn@caliente:~/Photography/rawproc$ exiftool -n -G -Lens* DSG_3111.NEF
[MakerNotes] Lens Type : 14
[MakerNotes] Lens : 18 200 3.5 5.6
[MakerNotes] Lens Data Version : 0204
[MakerNotes] Lens ID Number : 139
[MakerNotes] Lens F Stops : 5.33333333333333
[Composite] Lens ID : 8B 40 2D 80 2C 3C FD 0E
[Composite] Lens Spec : 18 200 3.5 5.6 14
The nice nomenclature you see from exiftool when you don’t use -n are exiftool lookups to internal tables. Just to hurt your head even more, that [Composite]LensID is an amalgam of eight other metadata values that is then looked up in a table that is AFAIK no longer maintained in a single place.
More recent Nikon cameras exhibit an apparent epiphany in playing nice, here’s the same for my Z6:
glenn@caliente:~/Photography/rawproc$ exiftool -n -G -Lens* DSZ_4168.NEF
[MakerNotes] Lens Type : 0
[MakerNotes] Lens : 24 70 4 4
[MakerNotes] Lens F Stops : 5
[MakerNotes] Lens Data Version : 0800
[MakerNotes] Lens ID : 1
[EXIF] Lens Info : 24 70 4 4
[EXIF] Lens Make : NIKON
[EXIF] Lens Model : NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S
[EXIF] Lens Serial Number : 20078247
[Composite] Lens Spec : 24 70 4 4 0
They are now actually populating the the standard LensModel EXIF tag with a nice complete string…