You're doing a lot of exaggerating here.
Pretty sure there was never numbers like 11-12 thrown out. It was more like 13-15 was the expectation. And I think most of the extras were because the new offensive coaches brought some highly-ranked guys with them. We were not planning to take five WRs but Joseph could get Palmer and Crawford. Palmer isn't in the above numbers but we probably would have taken fewer other WRs if we knew he was a possibility. We were only looking at one RB until Applewhite brought Allen along. And Jaeden Gould was a late surprise that you have to take.
So they weren't intentionally undershooting the numbers, just the situation changed. And I don't think there is any way we can get to 20 this year, barring a mass exodus. With the five commits we have now, we'd be at 84 if everyone else came back. Obviously they won't but I don't think there will be 14 early exits. And that's before any transfers are taken, and there will be some of those.
The issue is we have 27 scholarship sophomores this year. Until that "class" makes it though, the numbers will be odd.
15 is the number I've seen for this class before transfers. With the transfers, it will be 20 or a bit more. And that's still a lot of guys leaving to get back down to 85.