Alice was never the assistant, she is a direct hire from
NRF. Like you mentioned Eleanor was on maternity leave last year as she said so at the university event and how she was getting back in the swing of things.
Just to add; after emailing for feedback, I got an email this morning that I am not actually rejected (or atleast not yet) and the email regarding not applying to the TC was sent out in error.
Considering they were hiring for March and September 2021 it does seem like they may have auto rejected everyone without the LPC complete as it clearly just would never work.