- you don't want a permanent connection between the main and aux battery to avoid accidentally sucking both batteries dry on the aux-battery side, and to avoid the starter overloading the cable between the two batteries
- you don't want to risk an empty aux battery charging itself on the main battery and engine with more current than the cable supports, hence the fuse
- you do want to be able to connect both batteries in a scenario where you accidentally drained the main battery (e.g. a light left on) to "self-start"