I'm not blaming the recruiter. They could say 'the limit is $X' on an intro call. But I tend to take that as an early negotiation tactic. Because if I say X+Y% during the offer-letter phase of the pipeline, and they say yes, the first limit mentioned was a fabrication.

In other words, there is no way to truly know the limit until you've reached the end of the funnel. Maybe the company's struggled with finding a candidate, and now has decided to shell out a premium upon request. You'll never have that context. But true cards will only played at the end, not the beginning, of the conversation.