the best way they could do that was to do it in a sim that no-one would be able to afford to buy a "pre interview" sim ride.
Unlikely. The cost of a full motion 4 hour sim session at QFT in the Dash-100 sim with an instructor is $4600 which is right on par with any of the sims in that building. That figure is taken straight from the training contract that we were all issued back when I did my Dash 8 endorsement there.
The cost is in the hardware maintenance and running costs (hydraulic jacks etc), software and instructor costs which don't really change dependent on the aircraft type in a simulator if you think about it.