It sucks, but I understand Crunchyroll not promoting a series that got cancelled.
I also don't really buy that a Crunchyroll nomination would be the thing to make the studio reconsider.
What I believe to be our best bet is this: once the smoke of the studio merger has cleared, at some point studio heads are going to look through the library of owned IPs that were abandoned and see which ones have any potential to bring back.
They may conclude that Shenmue was not just well received both critically and by fans, but also overperformed in terms of ratings both in its initial broadcast and subsequent reruns. It also (probably) wasn't an expensive show to make, so there's no huge risk attached to reviving the show for a second season. At worst they'll end up with another season of TV that they can syndicate alongside the original season.
The downside to this is that this is not at all a sure thing and may take a while to happen, but if there's one thing Shenmue fans are used to, it's waiting.