I hate my HR for this “Great Place to Work” SCAM

Guys tell me if I’m overreacting or overthinking too much on this.

So I work at a tech company(name hidden for obvious reasons).. Me and this guy sit near each other, same department but different teams. We sit for lunch together most days and I would say we were more than the average corporate hi hello friends. 

So the performance review was upcoming and I was expecting a promotion or at least a raise. I have been consistent with my performance and delivered 2 projects in Q4 and 2 more in Q1. Meanwhile this guy only did 1 project overall. I had a team of 8 and he had a team of 5. I’m not trying to be jealous or bitter but I got to know that he got the promotion.

While chatting with him, he told me that he got into Product Marketing and got a move out of the current role. He saw it as a new role instead of the promotion. When I asked him about how he did that? He said after that he did some online courses from IIT and was constantly behind his manager and requested the HR team to change his role and HR recognised the certificate and manager accepted the request.

I feel undervalued and my work is not getting recognised. He got promoted and I feel like I’m behind now. And is this how people lose or stay behind in the same mundane jobs for years.

And honestly it's not even just about the promotion anymore. I'm stressed about where my career is even going. My parents have already started planning for my marriage, the financial responsibility is only going up from here, and I just feel completely stagnant right now. Like everyone around me is moving and I'm standing still. Really clueless about the whole thing. What should I do guys?

TLDR: I expected a promotion after consistently delivering strong results, but a coworker with less project work got one by upskilling and actively pursuing an internal role change. Now I'm feeling undervalued, worried that hard work alone isn't enough, and questioning if I'm falling behind in my career and life. Am I overthinking this?