If initial?

One can use "if" in this way to introduce a note of caution or restraint or to qualify the previous adjective.

"Initial" is a synonym for "first" or "early". This is an important step, the writer is saying, but we should be cautious because it is only a first step.

Fire-eating is an exciting, if dangerous, hobby.

My brother has erected a handsome, if shaky, wooden shack.

It interjects a relevant but limiting fact that modifies the word "STEP" which follows in the sentence.

Thank you Contrex.
Also thank you farmerman.

'If' can be given at the Initial or middle level of the sentence to provide the complete meaning. There are some other contexts like, "I wish as if I were a bird" which elucidates the abstract sentence.