[asdfologist]

I doubt the FIDE-PCA rift really mattered. The FIDE champ at the time was Karpov, who 1) had nowhere near the brand name recognition that Kasparov did, and 2) was not even close to Kasparov's strength. It's not even clear Karpov would agree to such a match even if it had been proposed. He would have most likely lost miserably against Deep Blue, and he probably knew it too.