Fractal interview questions

Where to begin. The first part of the interview process was fine. I interviewed with one person. It was very straightforward. They asked me questions about my experience and my qualifications. I was able to answer all the questions with no problem. We had a good rapport. Actually I believe this was the second interview. Or maybe they were so many I can't remember. Anyway, it was mentioned to be before that they were going to be some kind of exercise. So during the second interview the interview or er kind of gave me some tips on what to do for the exercise I would have to complete. And then he moved me forward to that phase. The recruiter let me know that it moved on to the next phase which would be the exercise. This was a case study scenario type exercise that would involve a deck and a playbook, actually a lot of work I took the whole weekend working on it in probably longer. I was told I would be presenting this to a panel. That didn't happen. I turned it in on time like I was supposed to and it was expecting to get a date to present it. Instead I got another interview with a different person. Who it seems had not even read my case study exercise. But I was able to answer all of their questions. It felt I was very, very qualified for the position. I gave him lots of examples of my previous work at previous jobs and figured I would move on to present the case study to a panel. Instead after days passed I get an email saying they decided not to move forward. But what about all the work I did? What about the exercise? What happens to that? Was it free work? I didn't get paid for it. I should have gotten paid for it. It took up a lot of my time. Are they going to use it for something? Are they going to use it to make money? I wonder. I wonder if I'll see it pop up somewhere. I can't stress enough how angry it makes me that all I got with this email with no explanation. And they have all of that work for free.