You call it a trunk because the word trunk was used in telephony starting the year 1900 probably, to mean a circuit between two exchanges as opposed to a circuit between subscriber and exchange.
The points of using it instead of FXS/FXO are multiple:
- Separate TX and RX pairs for eliminate return echo.
- Ability to pass digits in both directions, FXS/FXO passes digits from FXO to FXS only
- Support for disconnect and answer supervision.
All very importan things.
Hope this helps, please rate post if it does!