Claiming banned account usernames

As it stands, usernames of banned accounts are still unclaimable until their recycle 2 1/2 years later. This doesn't make much sense to me as the accounts are perm banned. I can understand holding them for a short period of time in case the account got reinstated but if they've been banned for months, shouldn't the usernames join the pool? I'd like to hear an official response from Riot.