I think it's to collect data. With this beta Tesla can now review all data fed in when the car was driving itself, what happened when it sensed an emergency and how frequently a driver had to take over and what factors were there when the driver took over.

Beyond that it's a "neat" feature but yeah if you have to keep your hands on the wheel then it's just an awkward and somewhat useless feature.

I believe it's officially called "auto-steer". I don't think Tesla calls it autopilot.