It comes across as exactly more transparent and honest to me. The bait and switch is dishonest and this incentives against that. If the starting price is closer to the final price that's a better outcome and more transparent.

> Yes, and for public projects this is often mandated by the 'lowest bid' laws.

Thankfully we're seeing a rise in multi-point bid comparison. Judgement criteria like "40% price, 30% Proposal Quality, 30% Prior History"

Yeah, I’m seeing more and more public projects awarded as ‘best value’ instead of ‘lowest cost’. It helps me get my foot in the door since I’m selling union labor and the non-union shops bend the prevailing wage laws pretty hard.

> it would just drive up the starting price.

And that is exactly the point! We want more realistic estimations, rather than void promises.