They are not quite the same thing. The root key is derived from your seed phrase, and is the first step in deriving the rest of your wallet.
It is correct to say that you could use either of them to derive all the private keys and addresses from any derivation path, however, the vast majority of wallets will only allow to import a seed phrase and will not allow you import master private keys. Additionally, it is significantly easier to write down and import a seed phrase without making any mistakes than it is to do the same with a master private key.
In short, back up your seed phrase and ignore your master private keys. The vast majority of users do not need to handle raw private keys, and if you don't know what you are doing then doing so is a security risk.