LaGuardia Gateway Partners interview questions

I applied for the position at the end of November, and was not contacted until the end of December. They took me right in for several in-person interviews over 2 weeks, both with HR, the IT Manager, and another one of the IT employees. Everyone was kind, welcoming, and scheduling was not an issue. I was able to answer all of their questions and learn more about the company as well as share my experience. After my last interview with them, they started reaching out to my references which all gave glorifying reviews of my last job. This is usually the last step in the process and led me to believe I was actually going to get a job offer, but after 2 weeks of no updates and me continually e-mailing wondering what was going on, I was notified 2 months into the process that I was not getting anything. I was told this by a phone call in the late evening when HR called me and said they needed someone "with more experience for the good of the company." It was interesting because if I didn't have enough experience, why did they contact all my references and lead me on this whole time instead of just telling me that 2 weeks before? It felt like a waste of time for both me and my references. The end result was especially disappointing to me as I was extremely interested in the position and the IT manager never spoke to me regarding exactly why I didn't get an offer.