If Columbus had not “sailed the ocean blue”, the New World would still have been found by Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500.
Not necessarily.
By the time Pedro Álvares Cabral started his expedition, Columbus had been to the West Indies & safely returned to Spain 4 times. Four times! Without Columbus having found The New World & RETURNED, Cabral would have most likely NOT sailed as far West as he did.
He would likely have followed much more closely his fellow countryman DeGamma. Directly heading down the African coast & going around the Horn of Africa to India. DeGamma himself found a new way to the spices & riches of India. Even his first voyage wasn’t until Columbus had been to the West Indies twice. The knowledge that something did exist West allowed for Cabral the comfort level needed to divert his expedition so far into the Southwest Atlantic.
Columbus was an the extraordinary man of his time. The pantywaists that deride him today would have done nothing in his time, much like they do nothing now.