Yes, they can. So if BIP 101 were adopted, miners could make 8mb blocks in 2016, scaling gradually to 16mb blocks by 2018 and 32mb blocks in 2020. An ordinary user with an ordinary single computer and ordinary broadband connection will be able to keep up. Will some miners suffer? Probably - but it's not relevant.

Changing the block size up or down is not going to have a tremendous impact on miner centralization. I agree that this is a real problem and that it requires some collaborative effort. The block size has very, very little to do with the conversation however.