The bigger issue is would he have been extradited to the US to face draconian charges for whistleblowing.

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know much about Swedish law, but based on Finnish law (which tends to be very similar to Swedish), the maximum combined sentence for all the charges would have been 7 years in prison.

The combined sentence is capped to the maximum for the most severe charge plus 3 years (when the most severe max is at least 4 years). In this case the most severe one is "lesser degree rape", for which the max is 4 years (that is still open).

Based on what I've read about the case, I would have been very surprised if the actual sentence was anywhere near the maximum. Probably more like a year for the rape and another for the other three charges, if they even hold up in court.

There's another sentence. For life, Julian Assange could be talked about as "a convicted rapist".

That's never what he was concerned about. What he was concerned about was Sweden convicting him, and then once they have him, extraditing to the US to be thrown in a deep dark hole for the rest of his life for espionage.

Assange was not particularly afraid of the outcome of the rape allegations. He was afraid of Sweden extraditing him to the USA.