This is not really an answer, but it might be informative. The BE Journals in economics (of which there are several: The BE Journal of Macroeconomics, the BE Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, the BE Journal of Theoretical Economics, etc) label each published paper as belonging to one of four "tiers": a Frontier, an Advance, a Contribution, or a Topic. Frontiers are supposed to be papers that would be suitable for a very high-end journal, Advances suitable for something a little less selective, and so on.

When you submit a paper, it's considered simultaneously for all four tiers. The idea is that instead of aiming high and then re-submitting a little lower down after a rejection, one effectively submits to four different journals simultaneously (and there is a single refereeing process where referees recommend not just acceptance, but acceptance to a particular tier). I'm not sure how successful this has been, but it's been successful enough to survive for, if my memory is correct, about 25 years now.