That game option is the perfect Starfleet choice, but I think canon of the test was that once you got in close enough to try a rescue it ended up that the Maru was a ruse. Of course if you didn't do any rescue it would end up being a true ship, but that's the no-win part. The game allowing a partial rescue made it not a "test", but an actual reality with some chance. Which was Kirk's point...reality can hand you many more possibilities than a test ever can.