Of course as a wrestling fan it was a shitty thing to do. I can understand Vince's side though and why he did it.
He doing that to Bret planted the seeds for his Mr McMahon character. It gave him the inspiration. so yeah, it was huge for the wars. Like it or not, Vince was just a big a part of winning as Stone Cold was. Without Vince's heel to play off of, Stone COld wouldn't have been near as big.
I like Bret but he should've dropped the title. Shawn has a life and a family to support, so even if he wanted to, which I agree he probably didn't care, but in the wrestling business, u got to do what u are told.