It has two potential benefits: — In the context of automatic text processing, it unambiguously indicates the function of a hyphen, as opposed to a minus — Fon

It has two potential benefits: — In the context of automatic text processing, it unambiguously indicates the function of a hyphen, as opposed to a minus — Fonts can choose to make the hyphen-minus a bit wider than a regular hyphen, to accommodate the usage as a minus sign. In that case, U+2010 would be typographically more appropriate for a hyphen, similar to how U+2212 usually is typographically more appropriate for a minus sign.