I don't think I would trust the 'word' of an interview prep company on that. Either bad gouge altogether, or erroneously casting too-wide a net. Agree with above that a PPL failure isn't a death sentence. Heck, something like a third of all CFI applicants fail on their first try.

um, no. I had PPL, CFII, two UPT busts (those are a little different but still count as checkrides kinda). Along with a bad GPA and a bunch of other warts and got hired 10 years ago when it was pretty tough to get hired anywhere (not tooting my horn just giving you context).

Fire your prep company and hire a different one if they’re telling you a primary failure from 20 years ago will make it “very challenging” to get hired anywhere.

Failed my CFI in 2007 and had a crap GPA in college, got a 3 CJOs from 3 interviews in the past 4 months. You’ll be fine but be prepared to explain it.

Without the context of your zoom call, your takeaway from it: "a checkride failure will make it very challenging to be hired at a legacy carrier" is objectively false. But could have been stated in a motivating manner.

Is that really what they said, or is that how you interpreted their feedback?

I could see an interview prep company calling a check ride failure a challenge to your application that you should prepared to face. And that would be correct. And they should provide some guidance on how to speak on it if it were to come up in an interview.

As stated above, consider a new prep company. That sounds to me like they’re trying to set the stage where if their clients don’t get hired they can just say “told ya so” re: a checkride failure and not take any ownership over how they prepared you. It’s almost a blanket get-out-of-jail free card for them considering most people have at least one bust on their record at some point.

That's fair, and to be clear, he didn't say you cannot get hired, but that it will be challenging to overcome. He mentioned how competitive the environment is. Perhaps it was a tactic to motivate pilots buy into the expensive product he was selling. I found it ironic though considering he himself mentioned he had a bust on his record.
I figured the message would be more positive, something like, "checkride busts are a challenge but with the right approach, you can overcome this obstacle and show your interviewer how you've grown from this failure". I'll give him some grace - it was at the end of a long Zoom and he talked quite a bit.

FWIW, the bold is exactly what you should be prepared to answer. Humbly turn every negative into a positive.

App status change
 

Has anyone seen their app change status from "Qualifications Under Review" back to "Application Submitted"? Honestly unsure what to make of it, but it does not seem to be a particularly good progression to me? Thanks.

optimistic take: the status just reflects that they ‘pulled’ it for review and locked it from being edited by outsiders during that period. Good job keeping an eye on your stuff. Now it’s back live and you can make any changes desired. They might even ask you when you show up if you’ve made any recent changes to your online app.