I agree with your assertion that the salary ballpark should be worked out at the beginning of the process. However, my experience has generally been this: 1) 3rd party recruiters (i.e. staffing professionals who work for another company) are often upfront about this since they are given a salary range for the position that they need to fill 2) Internal recruiters are notoriously bad for being vague about the salary ranges.
In the latter case, the standard response I get at the beginning is something like "we are prepared to pay an appropriate amount of compensation based on your skill level". But then when the negotiation actually starts, they balk at the range that I ask for.
It's generally a good idea to do some research ahead of time on the compensation range that the company offers for the position you're seeking (and not just salary, but total comp package, including benefits).
You won't get this out of an internal recruiter, no matter how hard you try, unless he or she willingly volunteers it. Instead, go to sites like Glassdoor, or consult with friends at the company or at similar companies.
You want to reduce the information asymmetry as much as possible before starting the interview process. And there are resources and tools available to you to do so.
If you're hearing all the time that your ask is way out of step with the range for the role, then it probably is. Companies don't have blank checkbooks available for roles; they operate on ranges or "bands" that they try to keep consistent across job titles and responsibility sets. If Company X has a range of $125k-$175k base salary for a job I'm seeking, and I ask for $250k, that isn't going to fly, no matter how much I impressed them in the interview. It will strike them as out of synch with the level and title and requirements of the job I am interviewing for. They will either counter within their range and say it's the best they can do, or they'll tell me I'm being unrealistic, and that perhaps my expectations for the role are mismatched with theirs. Often the latter. And if it's a wild mismatch -- say, they have the aforementioned range, and I ask for $350k -- then the mismatch is as much my fault as it is theirs. I didn't do my homework.
In the latter case, the standard response I get at the beginning is something like "we are prepared to pay an appropriate amount of compensation based on your skill level". But then when the negotiation actually starts, they balk at the range that I ask for.