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A split can be worse, but the rising costs can lead to a split, or at least a ton of people will become disinterested because of cost or rules placing an incentive on doing things one way to get the best result. Dieselgate didn't kill the Audi LMP1 program, it was the current rules and future rules not favoring diesel, and there not being a level playing field for Audi to pursue their own hybrid tech, even with a gasoline engine.
If it weren't for the ACO whipping out the ERS incentive at almost the last minute, we'd have a lot more variety in LMP1, and probably at a more sane financial price. Even if Audi could financially afford to continue on, the return on that investment was dwindling to not being worth it.
We're also seeing that with the conditions on Peugeot and BWM entering. And I'm betting that if Porsche and Toyota want to stay beyond 2017, they're asking for similar cost cuts, let alone getting Audi back into the series short term. The same thing has lead to F1 being what it is now, too.
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