The best explanation for the relative significance of the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean trade routes is:
The routes were equally significant—each in its own way—as they both contributed to significant cultural developments along the routes, and worth cannot be measured simply by the goods that were traded.
Both trade routes played crucial roles in connecting different cultures, facilitating the exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies, and shaping the societies they touched. Each route had its unique significance in the context of the regions it connected, impacting trade patterns and cultural interactions without one being inherently more important than the other in a broad historical context.