While generally I've had great success with negotiating salaries (in multiple cases more than 10%, in one case more than 20%), I have had a company rescind an offer when I indicated their offer was lower than the range I was hoping for. Ironically, I was going to take the job at their original offered rate as their cause was well aligned with my morals and values and I was excited to work for them, but they decided that because they couldn't hit the range I wanted, they assumed I was just going to leave.

It all felt off to me - it should be the candidates job to accept or not, rather than for the company to make that assumption.

Doing a lot of hiring now, I always offer as close to or above the top of the range the candidate is looking for if possible, and definitely have pushed that up outside our budget when we stumble across great candidates. I want to build a team that sticks around, not just have people hopping every 18 months.

I didn't have to, that's just a prominent, citeable example that immediately came to mind. People get ghosted all the time for being too difficult, it just doesn't make the news. It can always make sense to end negotiations when you expect the other person to have unreasonable expectations and/or if you have a backlog of difficult alternatives you can pick.

If you're going to reply, please drop the absolutes -- you're asserting a confidence you can't possibly have here. "No incentive"? Of course there is, you just don't think it's big enough to worry about. So say that instead of asserting a model that can't be true.

"No downside"? Come on, reality rarely works like that.