If we rephrase your statement to replace the alarmist "red zone" nonsense with something less panicky and more practical, we get:
A surge in transaction volume has led to a healthy fee market--six months ahead of schedule.
The 'red zone' coincides with an increase in hash rate and price.
Is there a metric for user frustration more useful than percentage of blocks being full? It might be hard to find a less useful one.
The 'red zone' coincides with a Transaction Fee Market Developing Amid A Surge in Transaction Volume.
The 'red zone' coincides with Bitcoin, quietly and without much hype, starting to work as it was intended to.
User frustration? Depends on the user in question.
Users attempting to DOS the network with crapfloods have been frustrated.
Users attempting to use the frustrated crapflooding efforts to justify pushing through larger blocks have also been frustrated.
As gmax quipped, "the attack is actually much less effective against the network itself than it is against the forums."
Users sending tx with appropriately competitive fees (IE normal people) have not been frustrated.