Caret interview questions

I had 5 different interviews and met with 6 different people (including the recruiter) within this organization for a role that sounded like a great fit considering my background and skills. Throughout the process, it was months of follow up back and forth with the recruiter and other team members to check the status of the candidacy. Each time I spoke to the recruiter, she reassured me that they loved me and were fast tracking me, which is why I was speaking to so many people. When asking for any and all feedback along the way, I was told that everything was going great and they were just waiting for a new leader to start. After all of this, I ended up getting a templated email sent from a generic hr email address letting me know they went with someone else. The recruiter didn’t reach out to tell me herself, despite talking to her about 20 times over the course of 2 months. I believe they could improve on their process and communication when hiring and consider the investment candidates are making in the process. This was time taken off from my current job to interview, late interviews that took me away from my children, hours of preparing for 5+ meetings, and turning down other job offers under the impression it was going so well. Better communication and consideration of candidates time would have helped.