I just noticed this and couldn't find any documentation. What does this do?
It's in the Release Notes 
Workflow actions now have an option to automatically produce a status with the standard auto-generated description of the action. The effect is equivalent to using the "Status" action, although in this case, the "Status" action isn't required. The option allows simple addition of indication of the current status of the workflow that is displayed in Launcher and Server tasks, as well as all computed Catalog assets.