Because a "contact" with a SaaS provider like 3DP is not a...

Because a "contact" with a SaaS provider like 3DP is not a commitment, and there's no risk to converting a POC.

My experience is that a POC is merely a validation for a client's finance team to approve and allocate budget for a vendor's product (and on reflection, it's likely that the "contract value" that 3DP have been pitching as a commitment was actually a budgetary constraint on the client side).

Once a POC "converts" the org will begin onboarding and using the tool. If they decide it isn't particularly useful for them, they simply not use it and won't be charged for that non-use. I once signed a $100k "contract" to a SaaS vendor (adding a line item in our budget) but we only spent about $2k of that budget.

The contract was renewed? That just means it wasn't cancelled, and if there's no charges then no reason to cancel it.

We will know for sure in 3 months, but unless there is significant outstanding receivables then this product and company is DOA.