Partition server start/stop in upgrade process

Users would like to be physically present when their servers are being started or stopped to ensure they can fix anything that goes wrong promptly.  However sitting through lengthy data downloads and uploads is not so fun.  This allows them to only be present when servers are starting/stopping.

More context: https://chef.leankit.com/Boards/View/87539983/129913878
CI: http://wilson.ci.opscode.us/job/chef-server-12-trigger-ad_hoc/103/
Is this a useful option? I'm trying to think why someone would use this permutation instead of just issuing chef-server-ctl stop (although I suppose the path to chef-server-ctl will have been changed to point to chef 12, so perhaps this is useful if someone doesn't know where to find the old chef-server-ctl)