The high end is for students who are "independent", i.e. not with their parents (or similar). This is a tiny minority -- they make it very hard to declare independence.

> The high end is for students who are "independent",

Or dependent students whose parents are unable to get a PLUS loan. And for dependent students whose parents are able to get a PLUS loan, you have to add the PLUS loan to the available federal financing. And how much is the maximum PLUS loan? “Maximum Loan Amount: Your child's cost of attendance minus other financial aid.” https://www.govloans.gov/loans/direct-plus-loans

So, the amount available for independent students or dependent students with no parent PLUS loan isn't the maximum loan amount available, it's the minimum. The maximum federal loan amount available, including PLUS loans to parents, is “cost of attendance minus any other financial aid”.

That's why they didn’t talk about a $5,500-$7,500 cap in federal loans.

I get a 404 on that studentaid.gov link

It's truncated (see the trailing dots). I assume they meant https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized...