they change a simple parameter from 1MB to 2MB),
they removed SegWit and a couple of other features such as RBF and changed the block size from 1 to 8 MB not 2.
There have been years in which to solve this problem, or implement some breathing space. SegWit was one example of breathing space that we finally got, but 1MB block sizes simply will not do it, the transaction volume it can process is too small. Unless you wished to keep bitcoin as a 'store' of value, in which case an altcoin like BCH or Litecoin will take over for day to day currency use.
the issue with SegWit and scaling is that unless a great number of people start using SegWit transctions, we won't see any change in this "breathing space" that you are talking about.
the block size is 1 MB as long as nobody uses SegWit. but if more start using it, the size will also increase. currently it is a little above 1 and with the highest at 1.5 MB. the maximum that it can go is 4 MB.
hopefully with the release of new wallet versions like Electrum 3+ people use SegWit more and we can see this scaling in action.
in fact this is one of the reasons behind SegWit2x, they said increase the normal block size to 2 MB so that even if no one uses SegWit we can have at least 2 MB blocks, but with that we had 8 MB total block size (hence the 2x thing)