Yo,
Gama was a... peculiar character. Sure all military leaders had a violent psychopathic streak to them but Gama was particularly bad.
A bad diplomat, he took offense at many things and retaliated with massive firepower.
So, what if he hadn't captained the fleet? He was only 3rd or 4th choice after all.
Say if his brother, Bartolomé Dias or Almeida captained it, how would it have gone?
Without those first bad contacts, could we see friendlier relations between East and West in that period? A Calicut based Portuguese Indies?