I posted this on the Reddit thread too but:

Yeah I was through 4 or 5 “steps” before salary was discussed. And I ultimately think that’s why they didn’t move forward.

Lesson learned. I wasted quite a bit of applying, doing an initial interview, a second interview with a teammate, doing weird aptitude tests that had me comparing images, a personality test, a coding test while a manager watched, and finally talking to an hr person about salary requirements.