Every time I've seen such an approach used, it was my opinion that the result was not a positive in terms of swing development. I am receptive to reviewing video suggesting the opposite.
My DD's team uses a similar drill with 4 stations progressively closer to the machine. Once the hitter reaches station 4 (closest to the machine), they start working back to station 1. The focus of the drill is to tune up their launch/swing quickness on the way forward, and then maintain the same quickness as they move back. Many of the kids on this team had issues with hitting poorly off slow pitching. Invariably, the issue was that they would let their hands drift slowly forward as they were reading the pitch, and lose the stretch/resistance in their body, leaving only their hands and arms to weakly hit the ball. This drill has helped significantly in getting them to understand about timing the ball (sitting on a slow pitch) without leaking their load. We have seen improved results in games since including this drill.