The top toolbar icons allow you to Move, Duplicate, Delete and change the section properties.
The Add Section button allows you to add a new section beneath the current one.
The buttons provide additional shortcuts to editing a section and more importantly allow you to edit a single section column, when you have a two or three column section.
Above - clicking the top cog brings up the section settings dialogue box.
Above - having clicked the side arrow, the snippet toolbar slides out.
Above - clicking into a snippet section shows the snippet toolbar, plus the black text formatting toolbar.