[libvirt-users] libvirtd via unix socket using system uri

I want to run libvirtd as a special user, and allowing users that belong to a special group to connect via qemu+unix:///system (eg: unix socket). I did everything necessary to do so: created a libvirt user and group, added the libvirt user to the kvm group, added my normal user to the libvirt group, and made sure the socket is owned by libvirt:libvirt with permissions set to 770. libvirtd starts successfully, but when I try to connect as the normal user I get this error: bash$ virsh --connect qemu+unix://system error: failed to connect to the hypervisor error: invalid argument: using unix socket and remote server 'system' is not supported. A trace shows virsh is not even trying to open the socket. I want to use the socket because I just need local connectivity and don't want to run sasl and set up certificates for this, but at the same time want to run libvirtd as a dedicated user. Is there any reason to prevent libvirt from being used like this?