SAS interview questions

Applied online and got contacted by HR a couple weeks later. Spoke with HR person who moved me on to the hiring manager. Had a great call with the hiring manager, and then moved on to a project and panel interview. So I completed the project and then had two one-hour interviews. One with a panel of stakeholders, and then a presentation of my project. Everything went really well, again. Was told I'd have an update within a week. Update never came so I assumed I was a back-up candidate. HR eventually called (to their credit, at least they didn't just email me) and told me they went with an internal candidate because they knew the space better. No matter what I did or how good I was, I was never getting the job. I just resent the fact that they didn't just backfill internally FIRST and then hire from outside once they finished all the internal promotions. The good news is they promote from within. The bad news is getting in at a senior role as an outsider is likely impossible because you're just a token applicant at that point. Why put someone through all that time and effort - two months - when you know you're just going to go with an internal candidate. If had lost out to another external candidate, I'd be much less frustrated, but this is just disrespectful to candidates.