If there is significant doubt as to which chain is "Bitcoin", then Bitcoin is a failed experiment
Failed experiment in whose eyes?
● Certainly not current holders, because their purchasing power is unaffected (by any ledger copies due to having two persistent chains).
● Certainly not to prospective investors, since the worst case is that they see as investment options "Bitcoin" and its minor offshoot, called Kitcoin or whatever (the chain that was defeated in fork futures trading). Not a problem for current holders, because whichever coin the new investors invest in we all get richer by default, exactly the same as now and in exactly the same proportions as now.*
Here's where it might seem confusing if you have your eyes on the hairy CS details of the "chains" like a coder, rather than on the simpler
ledger aspect like an economist or investor. If you look at the ledger, noting importantly that copying the ledger doesn't change the nature of sound money because current holders' purchasing power is completely unaffected, the picture becomes clearer.
No one really cares about what is and isn't "Bitcoin." They care if their purchasing power is preserved without them having to make investing judgments (i.e., pick the right altcoins). They thus care only that the World Wide Ledger is preserved.
And a property of ledgers is they can be copied without affecting purchasing power (note the same is true of gold and even fiat money: the ONLY reason central bank inflation steals the purchasing power of the common man is that it falls disproportionately on the population; a magical "double every bill in everyone's pockets and every figure in every bank database" would be completely harmless "inflation," other than the hassle of having to change all the price labels and such).
The Bitcoin experiment is to see if sound money can be preserved. A persistent chain split resulting in an effective ledger copy, even if both ledger-copies retain significant value, preserves sound money. Completely. It does not make the experiment fail at all.
It is in fact is the ultimate mechanism by which the experiment can succeed in overcoming all obstacles. Bitcoin can fork and split as many times and in as many ways as the market allows, and the market will ensure that our sound money is preserved - without inflation (read: excess mining subsidy, no going over 21M) but also without the inflexibility that your Extreme Consensus view entails.
I saw you getting so pessimistic on reddit today about the politics of mining and the HK "dipshit" agreement. You lamented how fragile Bitcoin was for such an agreement to be necessary, hoping some success could somehow be eked out. It was unnecessary. Bitcoin is far more flexible and powerful - and more solid and immutable sound money - than you have yet imagined. You just have to get out of the trees of the CS aspects a little to see the forest of market reality.
*A dollar newly invested into Bitcoin
or Kitcoin increases current hodlers' purchasing power the exact same amount as a dollar invested in Bitcoin now - do the math to see this for yourself.