this pattern has the same name as a structural pattern found at a higher level. That bugs me.

I wonder … do we want to generalize this as “data flow”? Or should we just keep it as “pipeline”? or do we even need it at all at this level … i.e. do we need it as a structural and an algorithm-strategy pattern?

When you use pipeline pattern (at any level from where nodes are instructions to where nodes are clusters) is when the transport of data (given bandwidth and memory constraints) is easier/faster than the replication/transport/recreation of functionality.