A serial pass-through port was common on serial port drives. Typical buyers were already using the two ports on the Mac for an ImageWriter and for a modem, so the pass-through port was a big selling point. Some drives also functioned as print spoolers for an ImageWriter.
The drive powers up by detecting the +5V line. Thus the drive will not work with a Plus onwards unless you provide an alternative +5V source.
See:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=3202&coll=ap
The 68008 is unsurprising and would have been used as a general purpose controller. It appeared on a few third party NuBus serial boards.