[shaboinkin]

> Some of the WIV's genetic engineering projects on coronaviruses involved techniques that could make it difficult to detect intentional changes. A 2017 dissertation by a WIV student showed that reverse genetic cloning techniques which are standard techniques used in advanced molecular laboratories left no traces of genetic modification of SARS-like coronaviruses.

What practical, beneficial purpose would this serve?

[georgeg23]

It's a characteristic of a technique, it doesn't need to have a purpose. Not all things have a purpose.