The utility hits those two buttons for you and it applies a modifier and screws with the pivot, two things I don't like. If it works for you, great. I just think it's over kill and causes a few unnecessary steps, like having to collapse the stack or realign the pivot. Slightly longer answer: Each object has a transform…
The reset utility also resets the objects pivot to align to the world. If you don't care and you don't mind a modifier being added to your stack the utility is a decent way to tackle it. I personally like resetting transform and scale in the Hierarchy tab, it freezes just the data you are after and doesn't muck with the…