...you can get to that pre-Impact position, and still have the clubhead beat the hands to the ball.
Homer Kelley would agree with MJ. He once said that even good players get the Clubhead Lag within three inches of the Ball and then lose it. And he wrote that, at Impact, the Clubhead Lag Pressure Point Pressure is in its "greatest jeopardy."
I find that when swinging it is much more difficult to sense the lag. Everything wants to straighten and I feel less control less lag.
Is this a result of swinging versus hitting?
The Swinger does not sense an active Lag Pressure Thrust because Centrifugal Force -- not Muscle Power -- is driving the Club. Therefore, Lag Pressure can be monitored only as the Centrifugal Pull of the Sweet Spot and the drag of the lagging Clubhead (10-19-C).
Then, per 6-C-2-A, it is this passive Clubhead Feel that is 'aimed' from The Top, i.e., directed either along ('Tracing') the Delivery Line (of the Clubhead) or down the Delivery Path (of the Hands).