Could just be the job is acceptable at the top of the range and not the bottom. A company might not value the employee to the top of the range but the employee may equally not value the job at anything but the top of that range.
When a range is given, in my experience a candidate will usually say "I'd only be interested at the top of that range" from the beginning if that's indeed the case. The point I made in my initial comment is more aligned to situations when a candidate says they are OK with the range but don't 'commit' (prior to interviews) on where they feel they qualify on that range.