It seems to be happening already.
Bitmain specified the UAHF which third-party developers (whom may or may not have been funded) implemented as BitcoinABC and helped bring about Bitcoin Cash: UAHF: A contingency plan against UASF (BIP148) - blog.bitmain.com
Bitmain developers have also just released the Wormhole protocol extension, bringing tokens and smart contracts to Bitcoin Cash: http://wormhole.cash/ (English language option in top-right menu), Wormhole Project Launches — $1.2M Worth of BCH Burned So Far – Bitcoin News
Meanwhile, other not so well funded developers, have proposed rival token solutions, OP_GROUP, Simple Ledger Protocol etc. How do ordinary users decide which token solution they should support?
Things that could tip the balance, irrespective of technical merit, might be miner support and who is publicly “crowned” the winner (note: colored coin and token solutions have existed long before the competition):
https://coingeek.com/bitcoin-cash-bch-tokenization-contest-5-million-prize/