The block increase was looked down upon by many, probably the more technical minded, because we were taught that simple constants in equations (block size of 1,

The block increase was looked down upon by many, probably the more technical minded, because we were taught that simple constants in equations (block size of 1,2,8...) are not as important as the exponents. However, a 2MB increase on something that was probably arbitrarily 1MB seemed like a fine middle ground until Lightning Network. Then again, hard forks are no fun.