As someone who graduated a couple years ago this policy change feels ridiculous to me. The difference between someone entering college with either one or two years of calculus and someone entering with precalc completed is huge, and any policy that moves away from that is a bad idea.

The benefits imo are mostly around allowing more flexibility in scheduling for taking classes that require prereqs of calculus, which you're blocked from the first year otherwise. This can be compounded if you come in with many of your school's general requirements met, as this can make it hard to find classes to take that will be helpful towards your desired major. Additionally, some programs have (poorly designed) hard pipeline dependencies that mean you're set back from a couple quarters to a year if you enter without calculus completed.