Since a version is a copy of the entire SDE, the version changes tool should be able to display changes that have occured between two versions even if the data isn't loaded in the map. If a supervisor is responsible for posting changes and reviews the work first, they could miss the fact that the user totally messed up a dataset that wasn't related to the workflow. With Version Changes you should be able to see edits that might have happened in other feature classes in the SDE even if they are not in the table of contents.