I don't care about the hourly range on job posts. I've never seen anyone in my niche post a job with a range that includes my rate. Then again, I don't really send proposals anyway. But I get invites, and often, the client hires me for my rate, although it's double the maximum range when I look at the job post.
When I used to hire a lot on Upwork, I didn't set a range for an hourly rate, so I don't know what happens to proposals that are outside of the chosen minimum and maximum rates. On a side note, I think setting a range is just stupid. Once, when this was done by a colleague of mine, she was then complaining that all freelancers bid the max of the stated range, even when the freelancer's profile rate was much lower.
Personally, I think that having a much higher rate than most others in your niche is a positive thing as long as you've gotten work, preferably long-term or a high-value contract. Several of my clients have told me that the fact that I'm expensive and have a large amount earned on Upwork was why they reached out to me. They see it as some kind of evidence that I'm good at what I do. I think this applies particularly to clients that have, in the past, hired a lot of cheaper freelancers and not been happy with the results.
On my profile, my hourly projects are all over the place in terms of rate. I have different rates for writing and other kinds of work, but I also often use hourly contracts as a way of billing for fixed-rate jobs. For example, I can have contracts with an hourly rate that equals 500 or 1000 words of writing. So I just add the hours manually, based on how much I've written for a client throughout the week. Never had a client comment on that or ask me why I supposedly work for some clients for $60 per hour while I charge more than double that for others.
