I would say, in my experience, this was unusual as I have found the Asian airports to be the best at getting the Priority bags out - I fly frequently to NRT, ICN, HKG & BKK and 90% of the time the priority bags are out 1st. As opposed to 50% (or less) domestically.

You probably were the victim of them concentrating on all the transfer bags 1st - maybe there were some short connections going on...