How would you react if the candidate gave you the answer I typically give in this situation? ("my current salary is irrelevant, here is how much I want")
I'd be fine with that. It's used as a discussion point to arrive at a salary the person is happy with. If your original salary isn't one you want to base it off, that's ok.
That's admirable. It's unfortunate that a majority of the money discussion folks in HR will end the conversation if a candidate doesn't give a current salary.
During the last decade I changed several jobs. For each next job I managed to get 3-4x of my previous salary. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't happen if I had disclosed my previous salary.
For each next job? So if you started at 20k, and by several you mean 3, and by 3-4x you mean 3, that's still an impressive trajectory (20k to 180k in a decade). Even more so if you started at 40k, changed job 4 times and quadrupled each time..?
I think you're doing more things right than just not mentioning your previous salary...
How would you react if the candidate gave you the answer I typically give in this situation? ("my current salary is irrelevant, here is how much I want")