Which makes putting an annual figure for candidates who all might be useful at solving some of the company's problems but not necessarily the same ones to the same extent even less of a logical starting point...

There are loads of jobs that post exactly how much they're willing to pay, it's just that they're the ones which consider workers with the minimum level of experience to be a cheap, undifferentiated commodity they won't in any circumstances pay more than the fixed rate, and the rates tend to be in the $12 per hour range