That sucks. I've certainly been there. Unfortunately, you've got to keep one thing in mind: HR exists to protect the company. In this case, that means it exists

That sucks. I've certainly been there. Unfortunately, you've got to keep one thing in mind: HR exists to protect the company. In this case, that means it exists to protect the company from you! The chances that you'd get anything but extremely carefully crafted legal boiler-plate from them is basically zilch. The hiring process is broken in some very sad ways right now. I wish it was better.