Why do you think that the network isn't strong enough to continue updating NAS?  Anyone who's running a node is either not watching this thread and still forked from the attack and going no where, or are watching this thread and will know that a new version will be coming out and will update.

If Bter hasn't fixed their node, it might be easier (less work) for them to just download the new client and download the chain cleanly from the network again.  Otherwise they'll be wiping the client, downloading the data, bringing their node offline when the new version comes out, possibly download the chain again, etc.

There are some major bugs that are fixed with newer versions of the NXT client.  I don't think that stopping the NAS patching at 1.1.6 leaving the rest of the bugs in place due to the fear of nodes not updating is a wise decision.