Frankly the Counterparty system is better off sticking with the unspendable address method. Unlike OP_RETURN it's standard now, it doesn't encourage centralization like announce-commit sacrifice-to-fees does, it keeps an even playing field and doesn't give discounts to big pools, it's way more convenient than sacrifice-to-fees, and finally it is good marketing.

You can complain all they want, but you have to accept that in a decentralized system full of anonymous participants asking people to act against their own interests for some vague greater good isn't going to be very successful.