Putting the centralized argument aside. I would argue the Litecoin has more value through its utility, Its almost as if nobody noticed it. But in the end, it about the exit price.
I agree with your point of view. Every day we can see the volume of Litecoin is much more than the ripple. That means that investors believe in LTC rather than Ripple technology.
The future of LTC is very bright. We can see their necessary indicators such as volume, price, circulating supply. These indicators are increasing day by day and the value of LTC will grow accordingly.
Trading increases volume and volume of crypto has nothing much to do with its utility. Bitcoin volume is more but for me its the worst coin that exists in top 10 coins cause there are far more better coin than bitcoin. So volume doesnt really decide anything and second ripple XRP is not made for trading purpose, its made to solve real world problem and not like litecoin thats basically useless other than being a store of value. Research is what is required by the people to be done who think LTC has more utility than XRP in any manner.