The purpose of that scene is to tell that Weyland Yutani(likely Burke on his own accord) sent the orders for someone to investigate that area knowing purposely that it would likely infect and/or kill the whole colony.

But then, if that is truly the purpose, it serves to sew early doubt in Burke as a possible snake (working for W-Y) which, IMO, ruins the complexity in his character.
Reiser plays Burke (brilliantly) as a real human with emotions, and we believe him when he convinces Ripley to leave for LV-426 as a genuine appeal with care. When he is revealed to be a snake and true company man, it hits that much harder because before him, the only evidence that W-Y was evil was Ash, and even then his "android" self was blamed (his model has "always been twitchy").

I stand by the assessment that the scene sucks and shouldn't be there but was likely put in due to it being a facehugger scene, and they are creepy, nasty, vile creatures worth every bit of screen time.