Or, it may have been the oxygen needed to fuel the #NeverTrump movement. There's lots of money out there ready to take on Trump.
I disagree here.
What the Republican Party needed to stop this nonsense was a guy who's won and succeeded, someone with credibility. Mitt Romney, like it or not, lost. A decent guy, but he lost, and there are still some who blame him for Obama still being in office. All this did, and it was something that always happens, was that it turned Trump's harpies against Romney, joining the likes of Megyn Kelly, Fox News and National Review.