Ya, you talked to someone who didn’t know anything. You don’t have to ask, notify, or mention anything to a LO who took the UW option. Treat it like public, except no camping and off road retrieval.
Ok, let’s look at unit 15...I like real numbers. 78% public/22% private. The entire unit has a total tag quota of 923 MB muzz tags, 720 go to the draw (78%), 203 go to landowners (22%...RO or UW, their choice). If they pick UW they have to allow access and they have to adhere to established seasons. If they pick RO they don’t have to allow access (they still could but very unlikely) and they get to pick any 5 days all the way from Oct - Dec. Those 203 tags in this example are never going in the draw, so why not enjoy the 112,000 acres of private and ??? acres of landlocked public the program opens up with the UW choice. Good questions you asked. Knowledge is power they say.
Forgot to answer all the questions...all 203 of those tags in this example are up for grabs. R or NR. (G&F makes more $$$ if they are validated by NR). They won’t know breakdown on season choice or R/NR split until seasons are over because you can choose mid season. They can also choose to throw them away, and it might surprise many, but quite a few never get validated.