The two claims are basically saying the same thing. You can't deny one and not the other. Evolution has taken place over billions and billions of years in a sy

The two claims are basically saying the same thing. You can't deny one and not the other. Evolution has taken place over billions and billions of years in a system that's far beyond our comprehension in complexity. Evolving - or even not evolving - in this system over billions of years and surviving implies importance. I can't say it guarantees that a species is "essential", but that was never the argument.