Given the state of affairs in the DCEU and the world in general at the time, there is no way this would have worked in 2017 if Snider had stayed on to release a trimmed version of this (because there was no way this was being released as a 4 hour epic, and splitting this version into 2 movies wouldn't have worked either). There wouldn't be the backlash from Snider/DC fans about Josh's handling of things, which may have driven slightly better word of mouth. But it's still a bad story, full stop, which, while more financially viable, would still have been mollywhopped by Ragnarock in a week and likely would have driven Aquaman and WW84 in different directions (for better or worse).

With hindsight you can play 'what if' any way you want. But there is no way, in the face of Ragnorak, BP, and IW, that DC/WB pull the plug on their plans if this releases in 2017