That's one interpretation of Jon's test, but one that is not supported by the discussion at the time (when Jon was alive and could respond). A different interpretation, one that Jon talked about often, is "can the root servers do something differently if they need to?"

Jon was big on operations. The "test" was an check on the operational stability of the root. You can read lots into the test (as Karl and others), but you can also look at it as just plain operational prudence.

There is no test for "who is really in charge". That changes from moment to moment, from situation to situation.