After a first interview, there was initially a lot of enthusiasm. However, the recruiter cancelled the second interview due to sickness an hour before and then ghosted me. Expect very unprofessional behavior.

I was contacted on LinkedIn, I am usually skeptical about those but this time around I tried to play fair game. However, this turned out to be a mistake and a waste of my precious time. The interview itself was OK, lasting about an hour. The person was clearly reading a script and didn't seem very enthusiastic about the stuff they were presenting. Nevertheless, they promised solid compensation, equity, etc. in return. They finally asked me about the desired compensation to which I transparently provided my current pay, plus 10%. This appears to have been a show-stopper for them, as I quickly received a rejection response (but a response, nonetheless). I am not exactly sure what is the strategy here; are they trying to low-ball the candidates, or desperately looking for dirt-cheap labour?