I experienced this too, and landed at a smart company that paid me for the time I spent on the take home project. Yes, it's less money than I might earn at a more prestigious company who abused my time, but I've also successfully selected for a company that has a good working environment.

They have an engineer for probably 30% less than what I demanded from another company with a dumb hiring practice. The dumb company was willing to give me the money too, but I was annoyed with their process so I told them I would not work for them unless they put a four day work week in my offer.