Agree shelving the bill, not withdrawing the bill was a tactical mistake. But the government did the same thing in 2003 -- they first shelved the Article 23 proposal before formal withdrawing it two months later. The outcome was obviously different in the two cases.

One key difference is that the old guard of Pan-Democrats were leading the protests in 2003. In 2019, a new generation of protesters had taken charge -- a generation sophisticated in its "be water" organizational tactics but unwilling/unable to negotiate with authorities on a compromise.