The amount of MISinformation and DISinformation in this thread is staggering.

It almost seems like the majority of posters haven't taken the time to read the original pull request (linked here), which is particularly unfortunate since it was actually linked in the OP. The discussion that follows the pull request is particularly enlightening, although the noise does get a bit loud towards the end.

Using a standard transaction, actually spending a dust output would cost more in fees than the dust is worth. Why should anyone create an output than cannot (economically) be spent?

What this patch does is make a transaction that does this kind of foolishness non-standard. Miners are free to include whatever transactions they wish, as they always have been.

BEFORE:
 Standard transaction: Possible to create dust outputs, on purpose or accidentally.
 Standard transaction: Not possible to spend dust outputs without paying more in fees than their value.
 Custom transaction: Possible to spend dust outputs providing a miner is found that will accept sub-standard fee.

AFTER:
 Standard transaction: Not possible to create dust outputs.
 Custom transaction: Possible to create dust outputs providing a miner is found that will include them.
 (spending dust outputs isn't changed)

Is this really an issue?