I don't think anyone is saying "let's become less egalitarian in order to try and win people back"; hence my comment about being descriptive, not prescriptive. The movement evolves according to what its members do. If enough individual congregations move away from egalitarianism, then the movement as a whole does.

People do the strangest things. Orthodoxy as a whole has moved wildly to the right, and done so in a gradualistic way, hence maintaining buy-in from its members. And I know people who grew up Liberal but who now prefer segregated seating in shul.