i think that is not the hard fork that is bad, what is bad is the possibility of chain to split in two chain with both chain have the same amount of coin and those coins can be dumped by anyone because they would have 2x the amount of coins, this si bad for any coin, will kill the value completely
But that is what happened to ETH: ETH split into ETH (new) and ETC, so people had 2x the coins.
ETC was dumped from around 5$ to 2$, while ETH went from 10$ to 50$. Both survived.
so BTC, if it splits into BTC (Segwit) and BTU, will be in a similar situation.
Let's face it: the money, the market cap, is not leaving Crypto. People who have large crypto assets will not leave crypto because BTC splits IMHO.
The only question is, which side will win? Just don't sell your BTC or your BTU and watch from the sidelines
With the previous experience in ETH/ETC split, resulting in duplicate amount and loss, I am sure the exchanges are all prepared for the potential BU hardfork.
For me, I will just hold tight to my coins and try not to initiate any transaction during the transition period... Who know? I might be 2x richer after the fork???