An environment progressively losing users, developers, focus and resources won't be "marching on" for a long time. The only way to have a "bright future for Gnome", to quote the GUADEC presentation, is to realize that the current path is wrong and see how better to adjust it (note that I didn't say "revert": the days of Gnome 2.x are surely over, and there's MATE for those who can't do without it, surely it doesn't make sense to throw away the baby with the bath water).