Since segwit code was relased in Bitcoin Core 0.13.1 (https://bitcoincore.org/en/2016/10/27/release-0.13.1/) it is still now activated.
Since there was no other application like bitcoin before, there is no good, tested and safe solusion how to deploy and activate new code. Core devlopers used once with success BIP-9 (https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0009.mediawiki). So they decided to use it once again with a requirement of 95% singaling support for changes.
Time passes and we are still here, still with out scaling solutions, still miners trying to get more power for themselves. And we still didn't figure out how we can deploy and safty activate code that is changing consensus rules with out risking blockchain split.
But we learned something i belive. BIP-9 won't work for us. Miners are here for profit but not only. They also want more power, more influence onto protocol itself, becase this means more money for them in future.
From other side we have users that are going to try BIP-148. BIP-148 supporters just lost faith that our current activation process can work and took matters into their own hands. But BIP-148 isn't safe solution, can easly endup with chainsplit. So even if it work, we shoudn't use it in future.
I belive only people we can trust that will do what is best for protocol are coin owners. We won't reach unanimity when it comes to what coin owners want or don't, but im pretty sure we can get to 75-80% of votes when needed. Thats why i belive we should use Pow (proof of stake) to activate deployd code. In this case scenario it dosen't matter if you are a minner, a business owner or a hodler. Everyone have right to vote.
How i see this? First we have to make sure that noone can vote twice. We could solve this be using coins that are old enough. In example if after code is deployd we have 6months to activate it, we should use only coins that are 6 months + 1 day to vote. This way you can't use same coins twice or buy tons of new coins to do so. And voting process is simple from that - just put some kind of required flag when you make trasaction and it's done. We just need roadmap from core developers to get ready for next voting.