More to the point, over the course of several days until the Justin's deceitful hostile takeover, stakeholders overwhelmingly voted for the witnesses running it and against those not running it.
Yes @tcpolymath is most certainly the minority, but there is certainly nothing wrong with that, room for all views here.
Opinions can and will change, it takes time for our stubborn witnesses to come onboard.
Justin's behavior has done nothing but make him appear less trustworthy or credible, and has only given additional reasons to those who distrust both him and his intentions.
It could be certainly be different, and as you say opinions can change, but not this way.
You should run the box again. My voting finger is gettin' itchy.
I admit that prior to Justin's takeover, I was surprised to see how much support the softfork got. However, I would also suggest that the community had not yet been mobilized.
Once the exchanges entered, that's when the community rallied. And what choice did they have but to support The Old Guard Witnesses?
So I think it would be shrewd to keep that fact in mind moving forward. Perhaps community apathy could have played a part in the decision to deploy the softfork, but there is now less apathy ... for now.
I want to clarify that from my perspective there was not apathy per say but a lack of education about civic responsibility and/or choice to participate in Witness voting.
Please keep in mind that most folks stay incredibly busy just creating content and engaging with others via their own and other folks' content.