North Africa is a logistics campaign in which battleships, carriers, aircraft, submarines, and forces based at Malta or Crete can cut ports and leave Italian formations without fuel or food. British heavy ships moving along the coast could block Benghazi and support ground forces after interdiction had exhausted the defenders. A stronger British advance beginning after Taranto might outrun the scale of German reinforcement historically associated with the Afrika Korps. That makes an early Italian political collapse and a radically different Mediterranean commitment plausible, though not certain.
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North Africa when Italian sea power cannot protect supply lines
With the Italian battle fleet damaged, British sea and air power can isolate coastal supply routes and may prevent a meaningful Afrika Korps intervention.