Indeed. It's likely Collins would have been more amenable in some respects to Britain and less so in others. I don't think he'd have got into the tariff war over repayments due on land purchases from landlords. But might have been harsher over Border issues and the pogroms against Catholics in the North.I think it's more complicated than that, I mean if Collins lives, what happens during the 22-39 period might be just as important, would Dev live? Would FF grow as it did, and CnaG suffer in the 30's? Would the Economic War play out the same way and even if the Treaty Ports would have been returned... I mean you have the possibility of the better part of two decades of butterflies in that regard.
So, no way of knowing how the Free State would have behaved in 1939-45 had he lived and De Valera died. Though I can't help feeling that would be a swap that's beneficial to Ireland. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
or, "me a cowboy, me a cowboy, me a Mexican cowboy".