Well, then you ALSO create an (incompatible) alt coin. That's what a hard fork is: to create an alt coin.
nope.
your over using the umbrella term hard fork but not understanding the categories within the hard vs soft.
save rewriting to repeat myself
in short
soft=pools only
hard= NODES then pools
save repeating myself:
below these umbrella terms is what could happen.. in both hard and soft it can either continue as one chain. or bilateral split
softfork: consensus - >94% pools no banning/ignoring of minority. result: small 5% orphan drama then one chain. minority unsynced and dead
softfork: controversial - >50% pools no banning/ignoring of minority. result: long big% orphan drama then one chain. minority unsynced and dead
softfork: bilateral split - intentionally ignoring/banning opposing rules and not including them. result: 2 chains
hardfork: consensus - >94% nodes, then >94% pools no banning/ignoring of minority. result: 5% orphan drama then one chain. minority unsynced / dead
hardfork: controversial - >50% nodes, then >50% pools no banning/ignoring of minority. result: big% orphan drama then one chain. minority unsynced / dead
hardfork: bilateral split - intentionally ignoring/banning opposing rules and not including them. result: 2 chains
if only blockstream lovers stopped reading the doomsday scripts on reddit and the fake promise sales pitches.. and instead learned bitcoin especially consensus and bitcoins natural safeguard of consensus via orphans.. they would actually help themselves more and start giving real support to the community. rather than just kissing blockstream ass.
note to all blockstream loving doomsdayers
learn consensus