I could see a startup with a limited or basically non-existent legal team sending something like this out thinking it’s a positive since most companies ghost candidates.

That same type of small startup also might try to avoid exactly what they cited because they know they can’t really compete currently and are trying to find people willing to be taken advantage of to get it off the ground.

It is almost certainly fake, but I don’t think it’s in any way impossible, just very unlikely.