I also interpreted it this way. Despite your knowledge of who you are and what you believe you have to offer, job interview rejection can feel like a personal attack.
Of course you’re not a fit for this role, why would you ever apply? We considered you before we knew who you were. But now we see you as you truly are. Monstrously unqualified. Your 15 years of experience in distributed systems is nice, but we’re really looking for someone who could invert a binary tree in 10 minutes, and, well, you were on track for 20+ before we kindly stepped in and asked if you had any questions for us.
Of course you’re not a fit for this role, why would you ever apply? We considered you before we knew who you were. But now we see you as you truly are. Monstrously unqualified. Your 15 years of experience in distributed systems is nice, but we’re really looking for someone who could invert a binary tree in 10 minutes, and, well, you were on track for 20+ before we kindly stepped in and asked if you had any questions for us.