Reliance on a single conceptual root is just a convention (though a better one than the old days where people ftp'd in the latest hosts.txt) in using the DNS protocol.
There's nothing that I find particularly worrisome about groups setting up alternate root servers serving alternate roots.
In the old days, the latest hosts.txt file was small. Can you imagine a hosts.txt file today for a U.S.-only Internet? Or for a non-China Internet (which is the global internet minus China's)?
Nonetheless, it's good to know that the world can't screw up or take over the American-made Internet.