Oh, for sure. That's just plain sensible unless you Awakened a unit that has top flight nice class features and Awakened abilities to make use of. Otherwise an under leveled Awakened unit is mostly a really expensive side grade rather than a real priority. Hence why Spica was one of the first units I Awakened while Bashira chilled out at cc70 until I got the tsundere back up to speed.
Iris isn't a terrible first AW choice due to her initial placement heal but aside from that the only thing she's bringing to the table as a Saint is shortened affliction duration and eventually 70 more health per cast once you get her high enough level again. That's solid and she should definitely be Awakened at some point if she's your best healer but overall I'd give Spica and my bread 'n' butter blockers like Katie & Bernice priority--AW Spica hits like a truck and buffs Bashira as a side benefit while netting extra defense on your blockers is sneaky powerful compared to increased healing power. Remember, priests are among the slowest "attacking" units in the game whereas extra physical defense comes into play on every incoming physical attack. It isn't weird at all for a quality multi-blocker like Bernice to end up preventing waaaaay more damage than an Iris could heal during a given time frame. Yes, there will be times where more physical defenses are overkill because you've already pushed the enemy down to their minimum damage value, but believe me when I say that such a thing is a beautiful problem to have.