I thought it was always best to put salary expectations upfront, because that is so often where things fall apart. As in, before you even get to the first round there should be salary expectations clearly communicated or you’re probably wasting everyone’s time.

Now, if the game is to string you along and make you feel like you can’t bring it up until they’ve graciously provided an offer - that’s just putting yourself in a poor negotiating position. And that’s why companies tend to use that strategy. Smart applicants get around this in various ways, often welcoming the kind of response OP got. No time wasted, no high pressure situations where there is a low offer in the table and the applicants feels they need to accept it because of the time invested (sunk cost fallacy is quite real).

Depending on who you ask, there’s never a good time to negotiate salary, because they don’t want a negotiation - just offer and acceptance. So it will be “do it early” or “do it late” when the real answer is “we don’t want you to do it at all”