If the hiring pool is remote, then the local market rates don’t matter. Perhaps an open cost of living difference could be ok, but there is no market rate justification.
If I'm the employer I don't need to hire everyone.
I just need to hire a small subset of people, relative to the overall population in the pool who meets the qualifications of the job, who are also willing to work for X.
The bigger the pool the bigger the competition and the easier it is to find the matching subset, no?