Ueshiba promoted a number of people to 10th Dan before Tohei, were they better or worse? He gave a Menkyo-Kaiden to Roy Suenaka - does that mean he "got it"? Without disparaging Tohei (for whom even Saito had great respect), I don't think that Ueshiba really cared that much about the ranking system - things like that just didn't interest him very much.
Not trying to be contentious, but the fact that he promoted others 10th dan sort of bolsters my argument, which is that, if Saito had a truer grasp of the art as O-sensei taught it, then why didn't O-sensei give him the recognition he extended to Tohei, Suenaka and others? And if rank and licenses really didn't matter to him, why did he bother granting them?