What he’s experiencing and I wrote above is no different from say…how someone applying for positions which the minimum prereq is a credential someone does not have due to not having earned it either by not going through the process or by failing to complete it.
For instance, if a given executive position/line of work is one where a minimum credential required for being hired…whether by law or professional norms is a graduate degree whether it be a PhD, MBA, JD, MD, etc…one can’t be surprised or complain the process is not fair if one ends up getting challenged or not hired because one lacks that minimum credential.