If Perrin affected Rand's subconscious from TAR, Rand's epiphany would've been trivialized but the way Sanderson wrote it Perrin role was pretty superfluous to the both their stories.

I think Jordan originally meant for both their scene to occur together and for Perrin to participate in Rand's debate with himself. He would probably have been the Pattern's advocate showing the good things in life within the Pattern.

But with the tangled timelines in tGS and ToM that was discarded.

Though the presence of channeling women was still missing from the scene unless you count Cadsuane and her allies.