Upwork interview questions

I had an initial 30 min call with HR and was told there would be 3 interviews, which I thought that included. There was actually 3 extra interviews, including one with the hiring manager and a portfolio presentation. This is fine, but is slightly excessive for a contract role. The interviews were relatively straightforward and the people seemed nice. But they did seem quite unprepared, were not asked in a way where you could give STAR format answers, and questions were repeated. Similar to other reviewers, I was completely ghosted at this point by the company, even when I chased up I got no reply. I'd given up 4 hours interview time + 1 day of prep for the portfolio review, so found this really frustrating and disrespectful.