Thanks for sharing! (Sorry the following is written before I realised you posted your own blog post!)

It does seem like a trap, although you might nit have had the raw technical skills for the job they applied (by the way why wasn't he screened out early rather than on the take home task?),

They clearly have a lot of the skills around game design.

The trouble is that they also didn't have the high level skills that someone who does have the low level technical skills might need from a lead!

I'm not entirely sure on the take that AI would make it worse. If they are satisfied with the kind of game they make. Then they could continue to make games for many years.

I do think it's right that Game Developer companies want technically highly skilled people. My favourite thing about AAA gaming is the feeling of the constant cutting edge.

On the other than, I don't see why they couldn't have a long and fruitful Indie career.