I think this is a very interesting question. I was very ambivalent about this EIP myself -- initially I was against it but changed my mind as it being the best thing to do right now, precisely because the hard fork process is very slow and drawn out.
I'm very sympathetic to the community having *much more* say in HF decisions, I really don't think that they should be left to core devs. OTOH, I also think that we need to be able to coordinate much quicker than we do today, on the order of days not weeks, in emergencies.
thanks for replying here @dankrad, i really appreciate it >I also think that we need to be able to coordinate much quicker than we do today, on the order of days not weeks. what improvements to the process / ecosystem would you make to achieve it? happy to contribute some time, code or content to help