I think the same! The fandom was jumping on anything back then, including characters who haven't even met or who were just hinted to have any sort of connection. If Gnosis was there having that mysterious connection about his parents killing Enciodes' but them still working together, that'd be a blast with everyone building theories and headcanons.

Just look at the massive, enormous following silverdoc got on game start just for Silverash being meta and having a few flirty lines. Even silverphantom was a semi-popular ship on CN for some time. Because they were, err, two SSR cats? Okay.
Actually, what I never understood was why SilverCourier was never super-duper popular. It feels like enough people liked them but I've never seen a lot of content? A shame, I was interested in the ship myself.

I also think Gnosis generally would've been more popular and beloved because it seems to me starter characters, especially the 6*, still enjoy a higher degree of recognition and popularity just through endearing nostalgia.

So, pros of Gnosis being released earlier:
- silverweiss would've been a super popular ship with lots of content accumulated;
- Gnosis would probably generally be more popular and recognized;
- He'd maybe have more than one skin, and chances of him getting a second one now are super dim when Ryuzakiichi is handling 20 top popular characters like Mlynar, Degenbrecher and Arturia.

Cons of Gnosis being released earlier:
- He'd have the early Ryuzakiichi art and we don't talk about early Ryuzakiichi art (Pram and Ptilo can stay). CN can say about it whatever it wants, I think what he got on release is great.
- Their idea of freeze in 2020 was "slow with a white powder effect" (see Magallan) so he'd play a lot less fun.

I've really thought about it. Maybe silverweiss would've had a larger following with big name artists. It would be cool. But would I like them the same? Would I care if it developed differently? Would the wonderful artists, like those who created the Kjerag History Fan Book, and the wonderful writers who wrote fics that brought me to tears gather the same way they did?
I don't know.
Maybe it's good the way it turned out.

...okay now how about a Break the Ice anime to make silverweiss the yaoi mastodon it deserves