Are salary ranges actually meaningful? To be fair I don't reply to an offer that does not state the pay, but I've been a victim of bait and switch many times.

Are salary ranges actually meaningful? To be fair I don't reply to an offer that does not state the pay, but I've been a victim of bait and switch many times. Notably, when going through all the interview stages and being told I have been accepted only to find out in the contract that the salary is much different from what has been offered. They were hoping that I would agree given I have invested so much time going to interviews and so on. The excuse? "We have gone over budget with hiring and unfortunately now that the maximum we can offer, we are very sorry."