It very well
could be related, to be honest. The abridged series in particular has had very clear impact on the localization of the franchise as a whole in the past few years. TFS Nappa's voice is available in the Xenoverse games, Kai had a cameo from a good portion of the TFS cast (at least, before Toei forced Funimation to remove it from the home release), and the Super dub has been pretty obviously influenced by TFS' writing style, with a much more self-aware tone and callbacks to notable moments in the series' English history.
Take all that into consideration, add that the English-speaking Dragon Ball fanbase is pretty damn big, a decent portion of which is at least familiar with the abridged series,
and the fact that Funimation generally has pretty solid communication with Japanese license holders... It's not exactly far-fetched to think that Nappa's popularity with western fans was a decent enough influence in his inclusion.