Pillar Project interview questions

I met several members of the Pillar team at various events. The COO asked me if I would be interested in coming on board and we discussed salary, notice period and role particulars. At Pillar Project you are expected to work for free for a period of time prior to joining, in order to demonstrate value. I volunteered what i could of my time (given I was also working a full time job), but I was put on tasks which were not relevant to my role (e.g. writing user stories for QA testing...). I fought to be able to demonstrate some actual value to the company relevant to my role by delivering some hands-on usability testing training, to around 7-8 individuals in the company. After the training, I received excellent feedback from everyone but the COO told me they had decided to hire someone with no prior experience because this person was available now (this person had been in the training I delivered). I gave my own feedback that hiring whoever is available, instead of the right person for the job, is not a good business strategy, and he agreed. The COO then asked me to come on board and provide some freelance consultation, so I sent my proposal over to them and never heard from the company again. This interview process was a real waste of my time, especially as I feel I was manipulated by some bad actors in the company into giving just enough training for the person they already had in mind for the job, while pretending I was still in contention for the role. I have since accepted a role at a different blockchain company, who seem to value talent and not mess people around.