I think it's intended to just be a "better node" in as many respects as possible. Better security, more coherent module/package system, async/promises from the start rather than hacked in, first class security/sandboxing options.

The cool stuff I think is in where Deno is different. Able to be used as a library from other Rust or C compatible languages. Able to compile your javascript and Deno itself together into a single binary, etc