Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? You proved you're competent to the potential suitor by obtaining an offer. They got some valuable quality candidate interviewing experience which can be difficult to achieve, and you got a rock solid tangible improvement in your work QoL, even if the target ultimately didn't achieve their hopeful hire. Possibly they got some data that (to them) implies they should have offered more money. Win win. I would say a…
Sure, I guess you could play it back and forth like your sibling comment implies, that seems risky though (you might end up with no offers). Also why do I want to stay with the cheap people? They proved to be unable to deliver market rates for my efforts unless I make a big scene about it. I don't like to do business with people like that.
No employers going to give you the maximum that they can afford without negotiation or a reason to. It's not being cheap, it's common business sense.