I think Brokeback actually wound up suffering from overexposure, in much the same way that Saving Private Ryan did in 1998, when Shakespeare in Love beat it for Best Picture. You can posit all the theories you want about Hollywood not being progressive enough to give Brokeback the Oscar, but as someone who one debated the issue of same-sex marriage for a courtroom moot, I can tell you that the Academy was probably suffering from "Brokeback burnout."