This thread is dumb because IWW was an artistic evolution from Illmatic. You can't say what if his career started with IWW because IWW couldn't exist without Illmatic.
I'm deeply agree but
First
It's a what if thread, so no need to find rationalization to this. That's like asking what if Nadal wasn't there to play against Federer or what if the nazis had won the war. It's funny to ask the question
Second
A lot of criticism that came along with the drop of iww was mainly due to the fact that it was completely different from illmatic style wise, beat wise and concept wise.
Hell on earth was a natural evolution from infamous. Midnight marauders was a natural evolution from low end theory. Life after death from ready to die and so on.
Iww is nothing alike illmatic (though they both classics in my eyes)