I believe the low number just has to do with the number of candidates previously removed by sieving. Primegrid was given entire ranges of n values, they were not given proportionally more n's to test from 22699 or any other k. It also does not have anything to do with an imminent find for 22699.

You can see on the Primegrid SoB page that 22699 and 67607 both have significantly fewer candidates, just like here. Other projects over on PG, such as Riesel and Prime Sierpinski, have similar distributions. It all has to do with which numbers get removed while sieving. I'll have to leave it to others to say whether there is a known reason for this or if it is just "one of those things" - the mathematics behind it is beyond my pay grade, but I do know that it is normal.