Yes, it's a pretty minor downside and employers can share and emphasize benefits beyond salary to attract people for whom they are appealing. I work for a univ

Yes, it's a pretty minor downside and employers can share and emphasize benefits beyond salary to attract people for whom they are appealing. I work for a university and the job application system requires people to provide a desired salary range (I think it's a dropdown list of ranges, each $20,000 wide). I wish applicants could pick the top and bottom of the ranges themselves but it does weed out some people with unrealistic expectations (usually they're overestimating their worth but even if they're not, there are hard limits on what a department can pay). The university also publishes salary ranges but they can create problems because they are very much not hiring ranges; the hiring ranges are mostly in the bottom third, the upper limit of the salary range represents what someone might make after a long career in such a position. When I was a hiring manager, I would explain the difference in salary range and hiring range in interviews without being too specific about what the actual hiring range might be in their case (I also wasn't responsible for what a candidate was offered).