For to this end was the Gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit.
Salvation is confined to this present life, and preaching is to the embodied. That which was preached was the gospel (Romans 1:16); and it was preached to those who, at this writing, were dead but who were alive and in the body at the time the preaching was done. It was not preached to them while they were dead or in a disembodied state in Hades.