That's a fair question in terms of organization of work. I think hot deploy is on the agenda because:
1) We have a mini-goal of recreating the functionality of the AS 6 'minimal' profile which includes hot deployment.
2) When thinking about the deployment API and the implementation we need to think about hot deployment, to make sure we cover the requirements.
#2 is IMHO much more important; mini-goals like #1 should shift to match whatever is most productive in getting to the overall M1 goals. But if once we feel comfortable we've adequately considered hot deployment, I have no problem focusing on CLI or programatic deployments.