I don't really know how much the next Bitcoin update (SegWit?) could actually help matters in this respect (everyone is welcome to chime in on this), but could it be the miners' subtle way of telling us all to switch to it as quickly as possible?
Segwit benefits.
Segwit adoption. Without going into the details and only mentioning the part relevant to this thread, it should increase the throughput to around ~1.7-2x of what we currently have. In other words, a block size limit of 1.7 - 2 MB (depends on the user usage patterns).
Forcing the update the hard way, so to speak. Or refrain from switching to it altogether? What is the current consensus about what's going on?
No. The miners have to be the ones to update to Segwit since it is a soft fork. It's backwards compatible so users technically do not need to upgrade, but then they won't be able to *enjoy* its benefits.