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Good customers offer to pay for detailed proposals like this. They only ask for a few free hours of your time in order to meet you and see if they want you to make a proposal. Great customers will offer to pay you for even that time.

The situation changes a bit when you deal with huge companies or governments that send out requests for proposal and expect a lot of work up front for no pay. But that's because those contracts tend to run in the high six figures to millions of dollars realm and they want to attract bigger companies that can afford to spend a considerable time making a proposal without being paid.

Strike it up to a learning experience. The next time you want to make a proposal, outline to your client that you bill for your time (or pitch a fixed cost). If they decide to go with you after the proposal though, you'll treat that fee as the deposit so it acts like a discount.