If we refuse to upgrade will we be treated differently when it comes to making transactions with small amounts? Will we even be included in the blockchain?
A large enough fee can buy almost any valid transaction a place in the blockchain. Why anyone would want to spend a high fee to insert an unspendable amount into the blockchain is unknown to me, but you are free to do it. You can even send 0 BTC if you want to, but expect to pay a decent fee to get it mined.
When I started using Bitcoin, and Satoshi was still active, it was impossible to send less than 0.01 BTC using the standard client. Looks like it was a big mistake to make it too liberal in later versions. When the default client settings move back slightly towards what they used to be, due to the irresponsible spam of unspendable transactions, people who don't have a clue about how Bitcoin works start screaming and whining about censorship and whatnot.