So is it an attempt to stop the User activated fork getting traction ?
yes, because the period from august 2017 to november 2017 is the enforced period for Segwit ... not the LOCK period.
https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0148.mediawikiso Segwit2Mb is a trap.
they want introduce the 2Mb before SegWit LOCK.