It's also the point that it's easier and safer for a company to say 'no' to hiring someone than to say yes, especially if there's any doubt what so ever in the

It's also the point that it's easier and safer for a company to say 'no' to hiring someone than to say yes, especially if there's any doubt what so ever in the candidate's abilities. This is true for the financial and time cost, as well as the resulting lost productivity and chaos created when having to hire, fire, and find a replacement. Therefore given how "picky" companies have to be in hiring someone, they often have an order of magnitude more people to say no to than yes, and the earlier in the process you go the more orders of magnitude of "no" they have to reply with. Thus it makes sense for them to only provide feedback if someone requests it explicitly, and because it also shows them that you are still interested and put some extra effort into the process.