With the understanding that 1054 was the “formal” conclusion of the East-West schism that had started centuries earlier, and setting aside the theological and organizational differences between the two sides, just how different were the rites between the western and eastern parts of the “same church?” How different would they look to a lay Christian in the fifth century? Eight Century? Tenth century? (Tangential: Did choice of liturgical language rest solely in geography? Did churches use Koine Greek in the west if there large Greek populations, or was that a no-no?)
Later liturgical practice isn't my specialty, but the church in Rome functioned in Greek for several hundred years. So did churches in modern day France (Lyons for instance). So up until the 4th century linguistic division was based on the language of worshippers. The geographical split is mainly because there was a very tangible linguistic split between east and west and the dominant languages (Greek and Latin).
Sorry that I can't answer your broader question, I don't have enough data to be confident about my positions.