Birth of the Blue Missile

Sort of,
Yes this does eliminate one hose going to the front.
Pulling from the back of the heads is for improved cooling. Mopars cool from the bottom up. Cooler water is pumped into the bottom of the block and returns to the front via the heads. The water that ends up at the back of the heads then travels over the other three cylinder locations before being extracted by the water pump. If you can extract some of that water before it travels over those cylinders and get it cooled before it returns you have a net cooling gain.
The normally closed valve is standard, and if that were the only route for the water( which is the norm), there would be no advantage to the rear cross over except when the heat is on. This configuration allows full flow at all times.
Andrew