It wouldn’t surprise me if the UCs generally take a cautious approach to admissions this year, to avoid the overenrollment nightmare that happened at UCI. So the initial admission numbers might be lower than usual.
Of course, this runs the risk that your class might be too small. But if that’s the case, you should be able to fix it by carefully making offers to students on the waitlist. Overenrollment by hundreds of students is a big problem, but underenrollment by hundreds of students can be corrected.
If my guess is right, and the UCs are relying more heavily on the waitlist this year, then any preliminary acceptance numbers that you may have heard are less likely to be accurate. It’s possible that the total number of acceptances could rise significantly as applicants get pulled off the waitlist.