Shevet Ephraim also thought the time was ripe to leave Mitzrayim (and they weren’t off by very many years), and that didn’t go very well, unfortunately. The disaster of Zionism has been many, many times worse.
The gedolim said it’s treif, we all know it’s treif, and it would have been wrong to be “oleh biChoma” even more than was done.
Rather than going against our chachamim (“Al Pi HaTorah asher Yorucha”) and against pashut pshat chaza”l, had Zionism NOT started, however, it’s certainly possible Moshiach would have been here by now.