To be fair, 0.8.2 will be the one silently dropping transactions that were valid to all clients before that. Transaction relaying just became more of an issue...
It's not blocking them (they're still valid), just declining to participate in them.
This isn't the first version to opt out of relaying spam, either: it's been done since 0.3.19 or so.
it would only be declining to participate in them if when trying to do a transaction of 0.00000001 the client says to the person using it "i decline to send this press override button below to override this option"
but having it built in as a no-option/choice for those that do upgrade the client. is called BLOCKING by definition