Verbal Review 2017 ----Parallelism question----To Mitch

Mo2men wrote:Nearly unrivaled in their biological diversity, coral reefs provide a host of benefits that includes the supply of protein for people, protecting shorelines, and they contain biochemical sources for new life-saving medicines.

A. coral reefs provide a host of benefits that includes the supply of protein for people, protecting shorelines,
B. coral reefs provide a host of benefits: they supply people with protein, they protect the shorelines,
C. coral reefs provide a host of benefits that include supplying protein for people, as well as shoreline protection,
D. a coral reef provides a host of benefits; they supply protein for people, the protecting of shorelines,
E. a coral reef provides a host of benefits, including protein for people, protecting shorelines,

OA:B

In Choice C, why is the parallelism wrong? How 'as well as' could be used in right construction?

How 'as well as' could be used in right construction?

GMATGuruNY wrote:

How 'as well as' could be used in right construction?

as well as is NOT a substitute for and.
X as well as Y implies that Y is LESS IMPORTANT than X.
Here, the three benefits -- they supply, they protect, they contain -- are equally important.
Thus, the usage of as well as would be inappropriate.

Mo2men wrote:

GMATGuruNY wrote:

How 'as well as' could be used in right construction?

as well as is NOT a substitute for and.
X as well as Y implies that Y is LESS IMPORTANT than X.
Here, the three benefits -- they supply, they protect, they contain -- are equally important.
Thus, the usage of as well as would be inappropriate.

Thanks Mitch.

Can you please shed light on the right usage of 'as well as' in general, not in the above sentence. I'd like to know how an OA with 'as well as' could be true and when is wrong.

Thanks