Could be, although I could also imagine the BHA was intending that as a smoke test: if we were to find a putative alien message, we'd want to make sure the same procedure doesn't find other messages in the first N digits of \pi or related constants.
(shouldn't all messages be in \pi sooner or [much, much...] later?)
[does the def'n of "message" include finite length?]
I'd imagine, though, the KST-patched protocol would be to look at how the certain later digits of \pi vary "in realtime" based on where certain earlier digits (of \hbar) tell us to look.. that'd indicate sophisticated control of remote curvature :)
>Sagan's friend physicist Kip Thorne gave Sagan ideas on the nature of wormholes when Sagan was developing the outline of the novel.