Lookup the opinions of the dozens of people who made what bitcoin is and you see 95% support segwit first then Block increase later. Later definetly does not mean 2 months as per NYA. .
Satoshi and Gavin are the most important contributors, and they have both been recommending to lift the 1 MB block size limit "when needed" - and it was needed already years ago.
Yes why this took so long? Maybe for a reason like patent.