Digital timing light

[72tutone]

Please feel free to move this if need be.

I bought an innova 3568 digital timing advance light.http://innova.com/en-US/Product/Detail/3568
I'm having difficulty understanding these new lights with advance. Ive used an old sears timing light till it died on me by hooking up light, advance or retard disti by looking at the timing light and seeing the degrees on the tape.
What is the point of the advanced/retard feature on these timing lights? They dont seem to do anything different than what I'm doing manually.
I even called the manufacturer and they just told me that the number showing is the same as adjusting it manually? He stated that some customers just like seeing a number on the display???? Surely that cant be right?
This isnt a dial back timing light if I read correctly.

Has anyone used this timing light? OR can someone shed some light on how they work? It just seems the buttons are redundant as far as adjusting timing and just looking at the tape on the balancer to determine what degree your at.