This. I have recently went through this rather annoying exercise. Received offer was noticeably lower than what I expected for average for the region. I respond

This. I have recently went through this rather annoying exercise. Received offer was noticeably lower than what I expected for average for the region. I responded saying that what the job entails is worth more based on publicly available information and that does not account for my experience/certs/actual knowledge of how this shit works. They relented, but I learned through the grapevine later that they were unhappy about it, because they had internal data showing otherwise.