> Yet, they weren't around when it came time to make it happen.
Bitcoin XT had a mechanism for larger blocks in mid 2015. There were multiple BIPs and implementations for larger blocks besides that in 2016. It didn't matter much because of the stickyness of the original/default bitcoin implementation which is controlled by developers employed by blockstream, which was always intended to profit off of "sidechains" enabled by segwit and necessitated by small block sizes. (For anyone less familiar, keep in mind the first versions of the original implementation were written by Satoshi and then maintained by Gavin Andresen, one of the developers now on the "outside".)
Segwit2X was a compromise, arrived at through much effort at the Hong Kong meeting in early 2016 and again at the New York meeting in early 2017. It does appear that any compromise was futile and hopeless.
Bitcoin XT had a mechanism for larger blocks in mid 2015. There were multiple BIPs and implementations for larger blocks besides that in 2016. It didn't matter much because of the stickyness of the original/default bitcoin implementation which is controlled by developers employed by blockstream, which was always intended to profit off of "sidechains" enabled by segwit and necessitated by small block sizes. (For anyone less familiar, keep in mind the first versions of the original implementation were written by Satoshi and then maintained by Gavin Andresen, one of the developers now on the "outside".)
Segwit2X was a compromise, arrived at through much effort at the Hong Kong meeting in early 2016 and again at the New York meeting in early 2017. It does appear that any compromise was futile and hopeless.