I'd argue it was IQ's lack of action that pushed Spectrum further away from them. From them coincidentally forgetting to tell their allies about the war they were about to start to actually not requesting Spectrum's support and a whole host of things in between. If either of those two happened, along with other stuff, Spectrum would pretty much be on a much different road as to what it is right now. Going back to your Syndisphere comments, I still wholly believe Spectrum is its own thing (none of that sphere bullshit) and it probably will remain its own thing for a long time.
Thanks for the HS comments though <3