Federation phasers are versatile. It's keeping in line with their whole ethos. Yes the phaser can be used as a weapon, but it also doubles as a tool.

Kinda like a shovel.

Pre-Federation weapons were nothing to shake a stick at either lol.

Trip: You did all this with one phase pistol?

Reed: You're good at building things, I'm good at blowing them up.

He phaser'd an aqueduct and vaporized something like milles of water one time.

Not to mention the times ships have used their phasers to fuck with the planet scale tectonics