Wouldn't the test of that question be whether they were able to hire the stronger candidates within the listed salary range? I could see other things swaying s

Wouldn't the test of that question be whether they were able to hire the stronger candidates within the listed salary range? I could see other things swaying stronger candidates away from applying to the jobs with salary ranges; it can be difficult to tell the distribution of salaries within the range, so perhaps they didn't want to risk being offered at the lower end of the range.