Sinking independently routed ships merely proved the British case for concentrating merchants in convoy. The larger German objective was to roll up an entire protected convoy and make that system appear unsafe. Britain might respond by attaching a battleship to every sailing, perhaps by combining merchants into fewer and larger convoys, or by dispersing ships again to avoid a single catastrophic loss. The first choice would consume the battle fleet, while the second would expose merchants to submarine wolf packs. The scenario explains why HX 106 and SL 67 mattered as systems rather than just collections of hulls.
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The real German prize was confidence in the convoy system
Destroying a whole protected convoy could force Britain to spend far more on escort or even reconsider the concentration that made merchant traffic safer from U-boats.