The number of mind numbingly unaware posts here and on reddit has become ridiculous over the last week. I mean there are people literally suggesting forking to a different PoW algorithm while calling Bitcoin Unlimited the altcoin if it hard forks, etc. If you're the coin that's forking to a different algorithm entirely and also changing the way transactions are sent then how can you argue that the other coin is the altcoin?
testerx, I believe what is being discussed here is if bitmain decides to attack the bitcoin blockchain. If they have 51% of the hashing power (and there's no reason to think they don't) they can stop all transactions that they don't want. In this likelihood, it will be very good to have an alternate PoW available that can be introduced as an emergency fork.
I don't think anyone doubts that this just kicks the can down the road in its current implementation. It is, however, important that we, the users, protect bitcoin from this hostile take-over attempt. Maybe if they see the gun cocked at their heads they'll rethink it. They better.