>>283158136
>surpassed his predecessors
Didn't have to be senjutsu.

Of course you CAN interpret it to mean senjutsu. You could pretend it was always the goal of this line. But seeing that Minato didn't use sage mode on Obito this is a huge reach. It's more likely Kishimoto gave Minato sage mode because "why not?" in the middle of a war arc fight.