And, perhaps, if there would be a real support and not negativity ( was not MT complaining all the time that because of them it is hard for her?) it would be quite different in terms of their success, too.
I don't who MT is but Meagan Duhamel did not complain "all the time." She complained at how the breakup with her was handled (and rightly so) and then she shut up and moved on.
On top of that, Skate Canada -- who are the ones with the real power -- hyped them to the skies. So they had plenty of support, from their coaches who kept the team-up secret from Meagan for month even though one of them was Meagan's SIL all the way to their federation.
To say otherwise is revisionist history.
A lot of shows, especially big name and higher paying shows like Stars on Ice and the Japanese/Korean shows rely on billing. They advertise having medalists and Olympians in their cast. Therefore, if they had gone straight to show skating it may have been hard to get booked. Meanwhile, "Olympic competitors James/Radford" or "Canadian National Champions" or "Grand Prix Medalists" may get them more show bookings (if they had achieved those things). Of course they didn't get the results where they would have gotten their highest booking potential, but it still created enough of a name for them to get booked together into some shows.
It's true that shows like names. But a lot of shows in Europe have some skaters who don't have big names too. Plus, they could honestly be introduced as "Olympians and World Medalists" without this season because each one is.
It may not mean much to dedicated skate fans but I know a lot of non-fans who were inspired by seeing Vanessa, a Black woman, compete for Canada at the Olympics.
I believe this but I'm surprised they weren't also inspired by seeing Vanessa skate for France.
What I think happened (and this is just my opinion -- I have no insider knowledge) is that they started skating together because of Battle of the Blades and found they were easier partners for each other than their prior partners. So they thought maybe they could team up for shows.
Then, either they or Skate Canada or both saw how quickly Alexa and Brandon came together (National Champs in their first season!) and got stars in their eyes. SC pushed them like crazy, as we all saw, and I wouldn't be surprised if them skating for Canada was pretty much all their idea, at least at first.
But it didn't work out like that. That kind of gelling so quickly is very rare and also, Eric is a lot older than Brandon and seems to have back issues.
I hope they don't have regrets about how it all turned out. They each got another trip to the Olympics and some distance from their prior partnerships so it's not going to hurt them when it comes to shows. What will hurt is that the Russian market is no longer a possibility for them. But who could have predicted that?!
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to the head injury 
I do think they should have placed second overall. The judges were quite generous to the Japanese today. I am also impressed with how consistent and strong Vanessa's jumps were. I hope that they are extremely proud of themselves and how far they have come this year. fingers crossed that they continue.
