Brent, Inyo NF has relinquished their hands-on control of the permit system to the electronic process run by recreation.gov.
It seems they have made it far more difficult to obtain permits that were reserved in the lottery, since people no longer need to show up in person at the Visitor Center to obtain their printed permit. They can "confirm" online, that they are going on their trip up to two weeks in advance, and print out and carry their permit. But it is my feeling that it is the last-minute dropouts who make up the largest numbers of no-shows. But there is no way now, and no incentive, for the trip leader to somehow notify Inyo N.F. and then Recreation.gov, that some people in the party, or even the entire party, is not hiking.
It used to be Inyo staff's primary goal to get as many people on the trail as the quota allowed. But there just isn't a feasible way to "take back" electronic permits, without an enforced face-to-face last minute check-in, and then a face-to-face stop by and ask for an unused no-show permit.
It is fully electronic now, so only the most conscientious trip leader would wait until they are sure of their party's number of hikers, and then release their unused slots. And then, if they release those slots, there is the rule that unused slots show up on-line "at a random time in the next 24 hours". That next 24 hours could be past the reasonable time for anyone else to grab the permit and be able to hike with it.
The electronic system has certainly streamlined handling permits, but at the expense of making unused slots available.
As a caveat, I should say that what I have written here may not in fact be exactly how the system works this year. But it is the best info I have at this point.
