Hi,
Only one process chain required with delta infoopackage.
Yes as per the client and process you may transport the init packages afrom Dev--qa---prd. But this gain varies from client to client and the process they flow.
Some of the clients are very stringent and they may not allow to create anything in Prd directly and want all the systems to keep in sync.
So in such cases you may transport it from dev only.
Hope that helps.
Regards
AL