Recruiter reached out to me on linkedin, talked to a recruiter, had first interview with recruiter, after that passed, then had interview in person. Looking for very specific person for the job

I had to interview with the recruiter by phone, then had to do several team interviews with the staff; the other designers, project managers, video producers, managers and art director. The process took several weeks and a lot of time including a design project and review of the project and I was told I was one of two candidates left and that they would get back to me asap. I was then ghosted for several weeks after trying to contact the company and the recruiter because the hiring manager told me he was leaving soon so I wasn’t sure who to contact. Then after waiting maybe 9 weeks I was no-reply e-mailed that they decided to interview more candidates and ‘that I was still in the running but they wanted to review more candidates’ then 6 months later was no-reply emailed again that they decided to pursue other candidates. Overall terrible hiring process, and were very secretive with pay rates even after I supposedly made it to the final interview, and was told by most of the people who interviewed me that they would be selecting me as their preferred candidate. I’m honestly not sure what happened with the whole thing, it was very weird… don’t apply if you need a job fast, they definitely play the long game and toy you around a bit. Probably invested 8+ hours along with a multi-part design project that I spent close to 6 hours completing. So be prepared for a lot investment in the interview. When asked what pay I was expecting I said a very reasonable 80-100k since they would request me to relocate to Irvine, where the cost of living is very high. They said my request was way too high, and that I would need to lower my expectations of wages. But I make around 70k in the Midwest where the cost of living is about 3x less than California so I was also very surprised at their low wages, so most likely they underpay their employees but require them to work in office. A but of a red flag if you’re interested in working there as an artist.