No, it was mostly FUD from the outside, and many in the community bought it and ran with it. There is no market. Miner signaling sure, yes. Sadly it breaks the future of BCH.
Not cut in half. Perhaps shedding 10-15% in the short term, but it will hardly be more than that. It a small minority that support ABC/IFP, majority is either neutral or no-IFP.
Look at what happened with BSV. That this one will be just as bad, if not worse. BCH looked bad during that fork, and it will look bad during this fork. It is a petty reason for a fork