I think it's supposed to be a better-paid test flight. It sound like nobody dares to send a crewed test flight and Boeing doesn't want to lose yet more money on uncrewed test flights.

To date, the company has reported losses of $1.85 billion on Starliner. As a result, Boeing has told NASA it will no longer bid on fixed-price space contracts in the future.

Wow, they really messed up big time and obviously don't think they can do better. I really wish SpaceX had competition, but they really don't. Sad.