If F2P had come to OSRS earlier

So there seems to have been a surge in activity in OSRS massively since F2P has come out.

My question is what difference would it have made if it had come out initially with the release of OSRS?

Would we have seen an even greater surge than what we've been seeing?

Or was the timing of F2p coming out when it did against the clanworld situation better timing then if it initially came out?

Thoughts and opinions?
Cheers
~South

Note: I'm not talking about F2P servers being released, more when the game itself was made F2P