Honestly, I don't think so because that was a big part of his public persona (the mystery). I mean I think he would've been in a similar position to Prince, still creating music and doing other artistic endeavors, but not really in the spotlight. I think Michael is a 20th century artist through and through. You could even sense it way back in 2001. The way he was talking about the new generation of artists (like Britney Spears, NSync, Usher) made it seem like he was past his prime in a way, regardless of whether or not it was true. If you look back, that was the first time he started to feel that way, especially after turning 40. Even in the early 1990s before Dangerous came out, many speculated that Michael would become a has-been and that his sound would be stuck in the 80s, but he came out swinging with a fresh new style and reinvented himself for a new generation. But by the early 2000s, it was clear that he was ready to take a backseat. I know your initial point was that the internet and social media would have been the hurdles to his mystical persona (which they certainly would have), but somehow I find that around that time due to a multitude of factors, he was already over that type of image -- or more precisely, that image was beyond him.