Tiled background tile randomization; Increase free edition scripting limits; New script APIs & more.
When you compare code and events, events handle a lot of the heavy lifting so you can do a lot more with a few events than what you can do with a few lines of code. In fact, a few lines of code won't get you very far.
The free version is meant to serve as a test drive and with the previous limit to the lines of code you could use, it wasn't really good enough to try out the feature.
Beginners come to C3 to work without code. This distinguishes C3 from other programs. If the user knows JS enough to test it, then he has already worked in another program that does not require constant "Scripting updates". But I have no experience in promoting such programs, maybe I'm wrong.
Also the user who knows JS will still see the capabilities of Construct. By your logic, all the thousands of frameworks and libraries out there must be useless and irrelevant since their functionality 'can' be replicated in code. But pro coders and big companies use other products to speed-up the process, reduce the costs, involve artists along with coders. Many indie games were made with engines like Unity, GameMaker, Construct, Cocos, etc. while the developer was working for a major studio. Coding the entire thing from scratch was just not practical for them. Regardless of their skills.
I don't mean to dismiss your point, beginners do get attracted because of the event system, but many people don't sleep on the more advanced features when they improve their skills. No one's pushing us to code. However, if you know what you're after, learning JS will increase your productivity and expand your options when working on large complex projects.
On many occasions, Ashley has gave us clues that the event system is pretty mature by now (since C3 runtime maybe?) and there isn't much to add to it without breaking something else.