The authors talk about advantages in this section, and I assume if there was another purported advantage they thought was worth addressing, they would have ment

The authors talk about advantages in this section, and I assume if there was another purported advantage they thought was worth addressing, they would have mentioned it here: The ox cart was equally slow, and in the competition the camel had certain positive advantages. It ate otherwise unusable desert plants, which made its upkeep inexpensive. Little wood, a valuable commodity in the largely deforested Middle East, was required by ancient saddling technology. And its care and breeding could be left to the nomads and thus not be a burden upon the farmer or merchant. These advantages meant that camel transport was about 20 percent cheaper than wagon transport The article is from 1973, so perhaps the idea you're thinking of has arisen since then.