To me it comes down to Hunter is under contract for 2024 and Hopkins is not. They're not extending Hopkins obviously. So they might as well give Hunter some snaps and see if he is a viable TE3 option for them next year (behind Higbee and Davis).
I never liked the Hopkins pick. Another quality starting center (Biadasz) bypassed in the draft for skill player depth... I'll always be very thankful for what Hopkins contributed in the Super Bowl but he's literally done nothing else in the rest of his 3.5 seasons. And in that amount of time that's on the player, not coaches.