> Then you'd expect companies would list salary ranges in job listings

There's value in information asymmetry. If you don't know, you might spin too high, in which case, have a nice day, they lose nothing. But if you offer a low salary, then score, that's a massive win for them. Your only recourse is going to be jumping to a better job.

> So when the HR person was pushing me, of course I instinctively wanted to just answer and move it along.

When she said "she couldn't move forward with the interview until she had realistic answers to those questions" I would have responded with "realistic answers to those questions are" and then made up the numbers I wanted them to be. So if for example you would have been happy with $80K, name $80-$100K your expected salary range (since they WILL offer you the floor of your expected range). Basically they are asking you to pick a number that's in their salary band range, and if it's in the upper end of that range you need to qualify it in some way with your skills and experience justifying being above average.

If their salary range is $50-$70K for example, then by naming such a high price you are pricing yourself out of that job and that's probably a good thing.

I had an interview for a permanent position in the team I had been contracting for. To make it harder, one of my (junior) coworkers was on the interview panel. When the HR person asked me what my salary expectations were, rather than name any numbers (which would have caused friction since I was making significantly more that the person in my team on the interview) my response was "I know what the salary bands for POSITION and senior POSITION are. I think with my skills and experience I am in the middle to slightly above the midpoint of the senior POSITION salary band."

My team lead was really happy with that response and the offer I got was at the top of the senior POSITION band.