YAML as a programming language is something I consider as an anti-pattern (see AWS Step Functions). Very difficult to read/debug/test. It's better to use a real programming language that compiles into a DAG (e.g. Temporal, Dagger.io).
Here, he mentions how ahead-of-time compilation may be an essential feature to allow Julia to integrate well with embedded systems.
AoT compilation has been a hot topic for quite a while since the lack of it (albeit partially supported in 1.12 with significant limitations) limits the ability to deploy Julia in many environments (embedded, serverless, browsers).