Rabbi Akiva specified that when the Torah requires the mued's owner to pay kofer — ransom — the amount is calculated based on the value of the ox owner, not the value of the victim. This was a controversial position that the Mekhilta elaborates.
Rabbi Akiva supported this with a broader principle about redemption and death. In all cases where a person faces death at the hands of a human court, no ransom is accepted. (Leviticus 27:29) states: "Any cherem (excommunication) that is devoted from a man going out to be executed shall not be redeemed, for he is going to be put to death." A condemned prisoner has no monetary value — he cannot be redeemed because his life is forfeit.
But the owner of the mued ox faces death at the hands of Heaven, not at the hands of man. Therefore, he does have the option of paying "the redemption of his soul." The kofer payment is literally soul-ransom: the owner buys back his own life from the divine death sentence by paying a sum calculated according to his own worth.
This interpretation has a remarkable implication. The payment is about the owner's life, not the victim's life. It is not compensation paid to the victim's family for their loss. It is a ransom the owner pays to Heaven for his own survival. The family receives the money, but the legal theory behind the payment is self-redemption, not victim compensation. The owner is literally purchasing his continued existence.