What do you think the longevity and sucess of Family Matters would have been like had without Urkel?

I've heard some people say they felt Urkel both saved and doomed the show. Given that Family Matters started as a spin-off to Jo Marie Payton-France's character from Perfect Strangers, could they have focused on the popularity of Harriet Winslow (which is why the spin-off happened) if Urkel didn't become a regular? I'm trying to imagine a path in a scenario where Urkel didn't become a regular on Family Matters, but the show still saw the same level of success.

I've seen speculation that without Urkel, Family Matters probably would have ended up as another generic family sit-com that didn't really stand out, and at best probably would have been canceled around the same time Perfect Strangers completed its run.