Would people had been more outraged had Chris Brown had physically assaulted say, Jordin Sparks

Not that people weren't already and justifiable angry over Chris beating up Rihanna. My point is that it's debatable that Chris was able to reasonably weather that controversy because people arguably didn't care enough about Rihanna's public persona. Her image was that of the sexpot "bad girl" instead of a more sympathetic, wholesome girl next door. Not to mention that this was before current social media.