If the vast majority of the community doesn't like this move can't we just ignore the new patch and refuse to upgrade?
Go ahead. :-) I think you will be disappointed however.
How so? If the vast majority stick with the 0.8.1 client I think the 0.8.2 client people would be disappointed.
Well they are fixing things in the upgrade releases, so I think in general you will want to upgrade. If not now, then eventually. Bitcoin is still Beta level software- there are still quite a few bugs to be worked out.
0.8.2 will have the small transaction change with some bug fixes...
We can upgrade to 0.8.3 that has the transaction change taken out and leaves in the bug fixes.