Testpads beneath battery are 100% functional - in fact, even the lack of ESD is kind of a FUD, as USB chip itself have internal ESD protection rated 7kV (or 11 kV, can't remember numbers now, from top of my head). The circuitry outside USB chip is "external defense line" - handy to have doubled defenses for peace of mind, but to be honest, i believe they're there more for a number of n-regulatory compliant, than for actual necessity.

Anyway, it should handle charging up to 1.250 A without problems, so there must be something else wrong. Try checking your charging current from battery gauge chip, either by BNF, bq27200.sh scripts, or kernel-power bq27x00_battery modules, or whatever you feel fancy. That would be a good start - maybe connection is weak somewhere... Or you just have some internal element damaged, apart from USB port itself.

/Estel