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Without runners, the action would be an illegal pitch in NFHS, because the pitcher failed to complete his delivery upon beginning it. In OBR, this would be nothing without runners, but I would tell the pitcher not to do this, because it would be confusing to the batter. With runners, the plate umpire in the OP is incorrect, and stopping a pitch is a balk.
I had a related situation as HP in a high school game with runners on 2B and 3B where the pitcher failed to come set when he threw a pitch that was fouled off. I called a balk, and awarded the runner on 3B home, and advanced the runner to 2B. My partner tried to talk me out of a balk, by saying that the pitcher is allowed to not come set with a runner on 3B. I told him that the configuration of runners on the bases is irrelevant for the enforcement of the balk rule. Because the pitcher was in the set position, and failed to come set, I called a balk.
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