> I see this openness at buffer essentially being a tool for management to deny raise requests, etc... with... If we do it for you, we have to do it for everybody... which is a just a BS excuse to not face the reality that every persons value and work situation is different, and should be treated differently.

Their salary formula accounts for experience, company performance, and role. Having the openness and formula makes it easy to say no to arbitrary salary-increase requests and also makes it easy to have a fair raise in place "automatically". Sure, the formula is not perfect, but as the zen of python goes, explicit is better than implicit. Changing the formula or the parameters to it may be a wise thing for the company to do at some point, but it will likely be clear what the change is and why is it beneficial to the company. That sounds a lot better than the way that salaries are typically negotiated.