The main purpose is to handle settings in SD files, so you can have a SD file that establishes a list of setting values.
As a related helpful tool, there is a new command $Sd/Show=
One issue with $Sd/Show is that it displays the entire file. That is okay for short files, e.g. ones containing settings or simple gcode test files, but displaying enormous files can be tedious. There should be some option for limiting the number of lines shown.