Welcome to the job, MetalMedic
You have a great question that nearly every new EMT who wants to be a paramedic struggles with for a while. . . I personally believe that having time to build road skills prior to attaching a -P is not only helpful, but vital. . . Getting into the feel of the job before having the full weight of responsibility for each and every call you're on as a paramedic is very important. . . It's not that the job is necessarily hard, but there are a lot of elements to the job, and if you don't have a solid background in basic skills on the bus and in BLS patient interaction, you will be a woefully lacking ALS practitioner. . . There will be times in your career where no level of advanced skills can save a situation, and having the stability of nerve and mind that comes with time will be your only salvation. . . It is a huge thing to be the paramedic on a call, since as the highest qualified practitioner, you are not only in control, but responsible for the outcome, and having some time under your belt to build the necessary fortitudes before being the one everyone else will depend on is absolutely invaluable. . .
I personally spent 2 years as a -B grunt before entering the -P class, and it was the best thing I could have done. . . I feel that not only were my BLS skills second nature, but the essentials of patient interaction were honed and I was a much more patient oriented medic when I graduated with my -P. . . I was also able to develop firm nerves and an ability to calmly remove emotion and control a situation, which came in very helpful when I entered TEMS. . . There are a lot of good medics out there that know their -P skills back and forth but are unable to connect with their patients and use the 6th sense that solid, focused time in BLS can foster, because they have been just skills medics from the get-go. . . As much fun as having advanced skills is, the job is less about the skills, more about the person with the skills, and ultimately about the patient. . . If you are so busy practicing didactic knowledge and lab skills, you're going to miss the information the patient isn't telling you that a little time in BLS will teach you to read and intuitively feel. . .
I feel that if your goal is paramedic, the "ladder" approach of going B-I-CC-P could be a waste of time and money, and will likely do little more than frustrate you as you spend years between stages when you could just be where you want to be. I'm not sure where you are, but in Upstate NY where I took my -P course, they offered an advanced paramedic program that was basically between standard -P and PA. . . It takes about 5 months longer, but you're much more skilled on the other side, and it's definitely worth the time, and you'll have more road time to acclimate to the job before operating as a -P. . . If you're aching to get going with the schooling, I might suggest enrolling in an Emergency Services Management course, which is offered by many schools that offer -P courses. That will give you 2 years of school time to run BLS calls while in school, and on the other side you'll have an AAS (some have 2 year BS degrees) and your -P, and should you decide to go into a regional or federal EMA, a degree in ESM will be invaluable. Just a thought.
Good luck to you!