The whole movement of the Left capitalist critiquing clique, when they finally realize that blockchain based value transfers is the future, will decidedly favor green ecological POS with governance structures over machine-like, energy intensive POW. The fact that everyone is moving to POS, masternodes etc. puts us ahead of the curve, and the fact that ETH are moving to POS should completely vindicate our pioneering role.
I am not sure who you have been talking to recently, but for my part I see the mood having shifted gradually in our favor all through 2015. I don't think any longer the POS/POW debate is our weak spot. We're rather back to the fact that BitShares is confusing to people, that we have fewer developers joining in, and that people are unsure about the market mechanics and how all that will work.
The primary challenge as I see it is to convince the left that this apparently cynical, capitalist cryptocurrency/cryptoshares new internet value transfer economy really is the best chance we have to restructure the existing financial system in a way that provides transparency for big actors, anonymity for small actors, lower barriers of entry for value creation in the third world, and giving the means and power back to the people to self-organize in meaningful ways without centralized structures of authority.