In one embodiment, a method comprises: a network device, having attached to a first parent device in a tree-based network topology, attaching to a second parent device advertising better network performance than the first parent device; and the network device detaching from the second parent device, and reattaching to the first parent device, in response to the network device determining the corresponding network performance via the second parent device is worse than any one of the advertised better network performance, the corresponding network performance via the first parent device, or an expected network performance via the second network device.