I'm not convinced the lower tag numbers are indicative of lower numbers of deer. I spend a lot of time in some of the areas that offer early high country muley hunts and I see a lot of good bucks in most of them. I think the number of early tags is more indicative of CPW managing them as trophy hunts now.
My experience is that the larger bucks tend to be very condensed above timberline early and while it's physically demanding to hunt them, it's an easy hunt from the perspective of seeing deer. Too many tags in this season would destroy the trophy potential in several of these units.
As mentioned above 86 is a decent unit, but I've seen great bucks while bowhunting elk in 56, 74, 46 & 48.
The early high country hunts that take the fewer points typically just take more leg work to get in where the deer are, but the bucks are there.