"I assume each is at the beginning of a run so that all the
non GFCI receptacles downstream are also protected."

Nope. There is no more of that now because the device cannot be the splice.

"I don't know if
that is code or exceeding code."

Then you don't know.

I have found that daisy chaining a bunch of stuff off a GFCI outlet can be troublesome. First of all it causes more nuisance trips. A light over the sink is alright but not a bunch of more outlets. Even better - if you got a bunch of stuff running off of one and it trips, you don't know which outlet tripped it.