Hmm, I had forgotten about this and what actually happened.
Well, I don't think it would have changed much. The French intervention was not to conquer or anything, it was a "simple" retaliatory measure.
9 French soldiers were killed, 20 to 60 Ivorian civilians were killed during a riot. I don't think either side would want to escalate much more than that (even if that's already pretty escalated).
Economic ties are too important to sever them completely and I don't believe France has the political will to fight what would be in effect a recolonisation war, especially three years after the refusal to go in Irak.
The way I see it, it was a show of dominance, a kind of "slap on the wrist" which looked a lot like putting down a "native revolt" with a show of gunboat diplomacy.