Honestly, I think you're correct. I think the PAC helped them get their sooner, but it was a point of emphasis even b4
Cal Berkeley has shepherded a few schools through to AAU and I don't doubt they sped up Utah's process.
That said, the biggest change was that Utah decided to focus more on those factors. But as a risk-averse University President with not a lot of data points, it's likely they look at that strong correlation (and no real other data points) and consider that it may or may not be causation....but no reason to take the risk that it might be