I would say that even were it Peter being impersonated the wharble wouldn't have reached the levels it did. Maybe it's just that I'm among the older posters here (I grew up on 70s Spidey) and I remember him differently.
Let me say this, I loved and love Pete, but he was always a bit of a dick to his friends. Really, he was. The mantra, with great power comes great responsibility made him that way.
He was responsible to the world first. Aunt May, who was the center of his non-Spidey universe came in second -- there are numerous instances where, if he had just gotten her medicine, been there for her, etc., that things would have been fine, but ... Others, MJ, Gwen, Betty, et. al. were several orders of magnitude less important in the grand scheme of things. Hell, he completely ignored his best friends descent into drug use and madness until it was nearly too late. I could go on, but I'm drinking and "Fringe" is on (Yay!)
I guess if I had to sum it up, and yes I buried the lede, I'd say that there's a good reason Frank Castle premiered in Spider-man -- they're both, at their core, all about the mission. Frank is just Pete's dark half.
Or maybe I'm completely wrong and just enjoying my buzz a bit too much.