I should say that there are nearly as many ways to build a useful model as there are people building them. In the end, it's the utility of the model that you end up with that is important, not so much how you got there.
JMP supports many approaches to model building, and with a little JSL, more or less any protocol that you want to follow can be supported and streamlined. The one you describe above is perfectly feasible in JMP. Note that, for step 2, to get the VIFs you need to find the 'Parameter Estimates' table in the Fit Model report, right click on it, and select 'Columns > VIF'.
Finally, regarding the modeling capabilities of JMP, the VSS book is not really definitive, just a reasonable starting point for the experience of the likely readership. If you want to have an overall view of what's possible, you should certainly check out the 'Generalised Regression' personality of Fit Model (plus supporting material). I'm not sure exactly what's covered in 'Building Better Models', but the forthcoming 2nd Edition of the VSS book has a little of this.