so-and-so narrated it, and that narrating from him serves to maintain continuity of transmission, then a shorter chain is better than a longer one. This, then, is the benefit of authorization.

The crucial point is to distinguish between a chain of transmission that establishes authenticity and narration that yields knowledge, on the one hand, and a chain that enables narration and narration that supplies a chain of transmission, on the other. And Allah knows best.