That's not a position I am arguing against.
The only logical reason for hanging onto scholies is to balance classes. Otherwise, I'm at a loss to see why you'd intentionally leave them open.
But this should be a cautionary tale about why numbers are never quite as they seem. This incoming class alone has a couple of guys who count against last year's numbers, a guy who is a non-qualifier situation [Barnwell] due to academics / going the prep school route, a commitment vanish who will never qualify [Smallwood], another player [Garrick] who was likely told that there isn't room at the inn, despite the fact that we've got open scholarships to play with, and three decommits who ended up elsewhere [Brantley Owens, Whitehurst].
Stuff like this happens every year. The number of open scholarships isn't just the number of openings you have--precisely because of the above. The coaches could and should have secured commitments from 3-4 extra players that they had graded highly, and then just let the numbers work themselves out. And on the rare occasions that you have a scholarship pinch or two, then grayshirting becomes an option, as well as intentional placement in prep school.