Segwit2x is nothing short of a coup attempt by businesses & miners in the Bitcoin space to oust the core developers of the Bitcoin code and force their control in the direction of Bitcoin technical development.
I don't disagree with you, but you must consider how and why this happened. Segwit had a 0% chance of adoption without Segwit2x. Kore was so adamant that Segwit must be adopted but totally unwilling to compromise on blocksize. Silbert drafted an agreement to increase blocksize to 2MB in exchange for the miners rolling out Segwit, which the miners went along with. Then, Kore suddenly claims that the 2MB hardfork can't happen, just like they did when they breached the Hong Kong Agreement. They've basically destroyed their credibility and isolated themselves on an island of dweebs, in an echo chamber of censored reddit posts. It's pathetic watching these "cypherpunks" appeal to the SEC, claiming Garzik is committing computer fraud, and threatening lawsuits. I won't miss all of their drama.
I'm expecting that Bitcoin Cash's replay protection will be merged into the 2x and 1x forks at the last minute (irony). There is no other way to prevent absolute mayhem. Also I expect the BTC 1x and 2x spam transaction level to rise astronomically, creating a situation where transactions are unconfirmed for a week or more. This could be pretty stressful if there are replay attacks happening! Not to mention the price fluctuations, likely leading to some exchange defaults and "hacks".
Yep - I also expect some very high increase of the difficulty before the fork, also with some Bitcoin Cash power houses, after this the 1x legacy core crap will have more troubles to get mined - maybe also some attacks on the reorg after - that will force core to do a PoW HF and finally get an SWalt.
And I also expect a huge move of NYA coins and 2X supporters to exchanges to dump the 1X crap for 2x Bitcoin since with no haspower > no tx > brutal fees ( nice to see RBF working then) > no use case > no buyers. Up to this I expect them to keep up the BT1 futures as high as possible that dumb masses will pay them a lot when they dump it after the fork.
But before this all I expect more fights, drama and popcorn shortage and mods removing our posts here in some minutes

Good point about hash power surges. Buying miners is probably a more effective "vote" than screaming on social media... I hear MacAfee just bought 2k Bitmain units.
POW change is a joke to me - how could anyone believe you can change the POW and it will "still be Bitcoin"? That's exactly how hundreds of altcoins were born!
I suppose that when the BTC mempool becomes full again during the 2x fork and fees rise past $100 per transaction that people will be panic exiting to alts, since no onchain transaction is required for alt buys. That will put strain on exchanges, who will be over capacity. Plenty of hacks and "hacks" are likely. Those who have the stomach for it will be buying the dip, and trying not to catch a falling dagger...