Just pay 0.0001 per kb and you are fine. I am sick of these people complaining their tx is stuck. Just follow the bitcoin core policy and pay 0.0001 per kb. Time for alternativ client developers to adjust their fee settings.
Just tried it, tx got confirmed within 1 block.
Basically you're right. The problem is that people will most likely use the default setting of their wallet for fees. If that isn't adjusted to the current situation, the transaction won't be confirmed.
It's the sudden onset of these spam attacks that make them problematic: A transaction might have been sent with a fee which was adequate at the time of sending, but reaches the mempool at roughly the same time of the attack with the result that the fee is no longer adequate.
