Learning the Test vs Learning the Language

I’ve been thinking a lot about language learning lately, especially French and the whole DELF thing, and I feel like people mix up a lot of things there. Don’t get me wrong, DELF is useful and gives structure, but there’s a big difference between “passing DELF” and actually being able to speak a language. For example, I failed a B1 test, then spent some time mostly grinding verb conjugations, and suddenly I got way more points and passed, and not long after that it was already leaning toward B2. But my actual French didn’t really change, my vocabulary stayed the same, my listening skills didn’t improve much, and my pronunciation didn’t get better either, real conversations with native speakers would’ve probably felt just as difficult as before.

To me, that shows you can prepare very specifically for these exams, basically “learn the test” instead of really improving your language skills. The topics repeat, you train exactly what comes up, and on top of that there’s the examiner factor, one day you pass, another day you don’t, even if your level is basically the same. And then there’s the whole polyglot thing, people claim B2 or C1 in a language, but when you actually hear them it often sounds very memorized or the accent is pretty rough. For me, a language is much more than that, slang, culture, real understanding, how people actually speak, especially if you want to use it professionally. DELF is a good tool, but it’s not proof that you truly “know” a language. What do you think?