Lateral Case Study - Merger Model for no name LMM bank

I've been trying to lateral. From what I've seen, case studies are usually a pitch/three statement model/dcf/lbo. I think I saw that Evercore had a merger model as a case study at some point but that makes sense because bankers at Evercore probably build merger models. 

The middle market banks I've worked at never built merger models. The boutique I was interviewing at does LMM deals mostly and from what I gather they don't really work with larger, public companies. So when it came time for the case study they wanted me to do a full fledged merger model. I was able to do the forecasted 3 statement for the target, diluted share count, pro forma income statement, explaining the accretion/dilution and exploring different capitalization strategies. I just stumbled with the pro form balance sheet because they gave me a set excel template to work with that I couldn't figure out. They also asked for a write up. 

It took more me more than 15 hours on this. Turns out I didn't make it to the next round. I just don't understand why they asked for a merger model when they probably don't do them with the deals they work on anyways.

I feel like some of these smaller banks have all these tedious case studies just for them to show that they are a big deal. I actually got through the final rounds for a lateral role at a BB a few months ago and they were just more chill. No tedious case study. Just a focus on deal experience and technicals.