I think that might be a second IFT away personally: I imagine they'd like to see no engine relight issues on descent for at least one more mission first, since slamming it into Starbase would be a shame.
You could however mock one up, either with just a big concrete pad or with a pad and tower, and the booster "return to launch site" and prove it can hover in a specific location long enough for the chopsticks to close to get a very low risk approximate test.
yeah one out on the way up and on the way down, that has to be very frustrating. It makes my issues with trying to get a stupid website working correctly seem easier hah.
