Yes you can use it for plates, cups, bowls, whatever dishware you can fit in it.
I believe the intent was saving space in a small dishroom. I don't know if these are still made or not. Now I have to look them up.
WK78
Here on the Oregon coast there are several steak houses with them. They must have been popular at one time. I looked on the Jackson website and they are still made. Several have been on Ebay and their is no mechanism to spin the racks; however the wash arms/manifolds look like a spider with 2 different sets of 6 arms each for the counter rotating arms.