My understanding is that Google developed Tensorflow to provide a single pipeline between the data science model and a production system. The idea is to avoid a translation step between modeling the real world and implementing it in production.

Of course, most people don't have the resources of Google with a layer of data scientists and another layer of software engineers [and maybe a layer of data engineers in the mix too]. So the idea of a tool tailored to a small team's needs rather than those of Google seems like an interesting niche.