The idea is to get a clean kill or to follow up on a wounded animal quickly. A second shot with a simple trigger pull is faster than operating the bolt and may well be the difference between a humane finish and hours of tracking a hurting beast.
Here in PA you cannot get a license without going through the hunter safety course, it has been that way at least two decades. The idea that new shooters will be unsafe is kind of odd, given that fact. Most of the accidents I have read about or have had an occasion to hear about were experienced hunters, not new ones.
They will most likely limit the semi-auto mag capacity to 3 shots, vs. I believe there is no limit on the regular manually operated rifles. So you will have a choice of a magazine of 3 with a rapid action, or the 5 to 6 shots common on bolt actions/tube fed lever actions. Seems kind of fair.
In the urban counties such as Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery they limit the use of arms to shotgun/black powder. That will not change.
Allowing modern sporting rifles (like the AR) for hunting is needed to make the next step in gun protection: ta role back the semi auto bans in states like New York, New Jersey and CA. To make the 14th amendment argument in court it is best to have semi-auto rifles recognized as hunting arms by the largest number of states possible.
I really see no down side to it.