I would only add to your excellent explanation that everything you wrote would come in the midst of a concerted effort by right-wingers to destroy public education, ensuring that almost any test would be unpassable by the vast majority of Americans.
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I’m not even sure they started out that way. The larger public might have had a vague inclination that persons unable to even read should be unable to vote. That vague, untested general expression of will was then used to justify and sell a policy that was conceived in racism. (But, then quite a lot of general interest newsmagazines from say 1895 on, were quite explicitly racist. Not sure who needed the plausible deniability).
Except reading wasn’t a requirement of many of these tests. The test-giver could read the questions out loud, and mark accordingly.
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I think that given that there is at least one candidate in the race who wants to restrict the franchise, such ideas become far more dangerous than mere thought experiments.
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If uneducated voters are a problem, you could take their votes away or invest in educating them. But somehow the people who oh-so-reluctantly ask if it’s time for the first never even consider the second. 
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https://licsjournal.org/index.php/LiCS/article/view/773
Curiously, there were people who advocated “scientific” literacy tests on the grounds that they could not be manipulated by those with an eye towards disenfranchising specific groups.
The New York State Regents Literacy Test. Under the law of 1923, the sole authority to make rules and regulations governing the issuance of certificates of literacy was granted to the educational authorities through the State Board of Regents. A new voter might present as evidence of literacy either a certificate of literacy issued under the rules of the Board of Regents or a diploma showing that he had completed the work of an approved eighth-grade elementary school, or of a higher school in which English was the language of instruction. Determination of the genuineness of the certificate or diploma and the identity of the voter was left to the election offi- cials.35 Litigation followed, and the Court of Appeals upheld this law. Granting of the power to issue literacy certificates to educa- tional authorities alone was held to be a reasonable measure in view of the possible lack of impartiality in election boards. It was not a delegation of legislative power.86
Henceforth, election boards might not compete with school au- thorities in the administration of the literacy test. The future administration rested with the State Board of Regents. The state com- missioner of education, Dr. Frank P. Graves, appointed a committee to draw up appropriate tests. The members of this committee had been or were engaged in teaching educational psychology or measure- ment. The instructions for taking the test are very specific, and the test below is a fair sample…
– Bromage, Arthur. “Literacy and the Electorate.” American Political Science Review 24.4 (1930)
so his understanding of the political implications is either naive, or more likely, veiled.
For a more comical treatment, see also:
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… making the disembodied spirits of the Founding Fathers happy is not necessarily our top priority
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Very true.
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There was, but it wasn’t a recommendation of such a system.
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