What is fundamentally different in soccer vs. basketball that college soccer is considered a waste of time for potential pro players where as college basketball is the premiere development path for pro basketball?

In both cases the college game plays a significantly shorter season than the pro teams, so that is on par.

In both cases they play the same "game" but with tweaked rules from the pro-version. In soccer the substitutions are the most glaring example, as well as the clock. In basketball it is the clock again plus differences in fouls and 3-pt range.

Is it that the talent gets too watered down in soccer where you need 2-3 times as many players to complete a roster compared to basketball? Even that doesn't seem to hold water as soccer is the top youth sport, and I'd wager there are far more college basketball programs compared to college soccer.

I guess I've heard many of the reason why college soccer is "useless" (though i don't entirely agree with that sentiment), but I don't really understand why college basketball seems to work fine as a professional development system.