But bronze means nothing. Look at the reaction to d/s bronze from Vancouver! It was seen as disgrace and failure and the articles were all about the end and collapse of Russian ice dance- in Russia!! Russia is not going to bother with second loser medals.
Plus d/s were world champions whose od was trash and fd involved cheating to na people and b/a weren't wc and their programs were garbage too. It's why the coaching of high profile skaters by linichuk has ended. She destroyed her business in 2010 because of both d/s and b/a.
I see your point, but D/S were in a different position from B/S (or I/K). D/S were reigning world champs and expected by their federation to follow up with an Olympic Gold. I personally don't think there was anything "disgraceful" about their results, but I can understand why there was disappointment within the Russian Fed with a bronze where they had expected gold.
On the other hand, a bronze would be a coup for either B/S or I/K, both of which are realistically no more than bronze challenger teams at the moment. And wouldn't the Russian Fed have an interest in doing all they could to help a Russian team get that bronze simply because the bronze medalist will go into the next quad as the front runner for gold if both V/M and D/W retire after this season - which is certainly possible?