Not only that, but breadth-first makes it easy to: a) Iterate much faster on models; b) Keep better track of results and code and models, which is already quite difficult in ML; c) Enable other teams to work on other parts of the pipeline, in parallel.
Another perspective, in which we talk about on integrating AI into existing workflows, among other lessons:
Smith, Reid G., and Joshua Eckroth. "Building AI Applications: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." AI Magazine 38.1 (2017): 6-22.
https://www2.stetson.edu/~jeckroth/downloads/smith-eckroth-2...