But isn't HTTP/2 push restricted to same-origin content? Critical resources may not be same-origin, so I'd expect this technique to have some utility even when HTTP/2 is fully deployed on clients and servers and fully utilized.
The benefit of above technique is that it's deployable today, doesn't require the destination server to be upgraded, and works for cross-origin resources.
HTTP/2, I'm pretty sure, doesn't allow this (and there are all kinds of reasons it wouldn't be a good idea), but it wouldn't necessarily require forcing the other server to push the content.