Meta Technical Program Manager interview questions

My friend at Facebook saw a TPM position that was roughly a 100% match for my skills and put me in for an interview. I talked to a recruiter for about 45 minutes and was asked some slightly technical questions. He told me I was a great fit and he was going to put me in for the next round, and I'd hear back from him very soon. A month goes by, nothing. I asked my friend if this was typical, and he said no, and pinged the recruiter. Recruiter was clearly not happy at being called out, but called me and gave me some blah-blah-blah b.s. about having a candidate in the offer process and reqs getting canceled but I was in his top 5 and he'd get back to me in the next quarter when new reqs came up. I started trying to find other paths in through people I knew there, but all roads pointed back to this same recruiter for the range of roles I'd be a good fit for. Eventually I got an offer from Google, and I let Facebook know...All of a sudden they wanted me to come in for an in-person interview. Interestingly, a friend of mine got hired in the same group I would have been interviewing for. How did he get past the idiot recruiter? He knew the hiring manager.