The lemon-game bit at the end is correct. If you don't say what you want to pay people, they assume you don't want to pay them much, or that you don't want to tell your existing employees. So then the good people decide not to apply, and it takes longer to find someone.

There's a similar game theoretical game for the employee. You don't want to ask immediately because you'll seem greedy. But you also don't want to waste a bunch of time doing interviews and homework, only to find a booby prize at the end. So as long as there's enough firms that do publish a range, you're going to apply to them.