One could argue, and rather successfully I might add, that the perceived foibles and the revelations of Joseph Smith acted as catalysts which ultimately led to the main body of the saints being expelled from Nauvoo and out to the Great Basin. It was from this point on as the saints settled the western lands and the Great Salt Lake valley that the critical mass of church membership evolved into what we see today as the Salt Lake church. It is from this SL church that we now have what has evolved into the modern CofJCofLDS.
If Joseph Smith had been foible/mistake free, as Mary Baker claimed to be, and had not received revelations that were troublesome and awkward to the religionists of his day, he and the main body of the church would have had a different history. On that I think we can agree.
For the church to exist as it does today it was necessary that Joseph Smith's name be held for good and evil among those that would ultimately be responsible for pushing the saints out west.
The question could be asked, how would early LDS church have evolved if it had remained status quo/non-controversial and had not provided any internal impetus/stimuli that moved towards a rejection from the persecutors and many of the general populace of the time? Would the church have ultimately been able to carry forth its four fold mission successfully as it is today if the work had not been established from the mountain of the Lords house in the tops of the mountains and the everlasting hills?
It's an interesting question to ponder.
To pronounce that his name would be known for good and evil throughout the world was a bold claim to make whether he made it at the age of 17 or at the age of thirty-three. In addition to this claim, he also anticipated
... "a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories…from the days of Adam even to the present time" (D&C 128:18). This restoration would encompass "all the truth the Christian world possessed" (TPJS, p. 376)—including much that had been lost or discarded—and, in addition, revelations "hid from before the foundation of the world" (TPJS, p. 309). His teachings were often in contrast to postbiblical additions, subtractions, and changes. He said that he intended "to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world" (TPJS, p. 366).
and then we have:
In a revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet at Hiram, Ohio, in October 1831 the Lord revealed: "The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth" (Doctrine and Covenants 65:2). On another occasion Joseph Smith prophesied that the "Church will fill North and South America; it will fill the world" (Conference Report, April 8, 1898, p. 57, see also History of the Church 6:318-319).
Bold claims.
And I would argue that Joseph Smith's claims and future prophecies concerning the work that would come forth from the restoration is qualitatively different and unique among the other so called "prophets" or religionists of his day.
Regards,
MG