National Interstate interview questions

I went through 9 interviews/meetings over a period of nearly 3 months. The interviews went well, got very positive feedback each time. After the last meeting I was told there was a "new" candidate they wanted to interview and would get back to me within a few days. Never heard from them. Reached out and was told they decided to go in a "different direction". After all that, putting me through so many interviews, giving me positive feedback and hope, dragging it out for months, and out of the blue they have a "new person"? Where did this "new person" come from? At the very least, after putting me through all of that, they could have communicated something to me without me having to reach out to them.

Talked to three different managers for about 30 minutes about job and experience. Pretty repetitive and inefficient, interview was mainly about past experience and asking small technical questions. overall wasn't a bad experience