Is it something else?
Yes its the dumb ass like you dont understand the economic of bitcoin infrastructure. You can send btc with any amount as a fee. But that tx will not be confirmed for a very long time.
Micro payments are all relative. 25cents are way too small and unrealistic.
Its not a problem for blockchain to fix but its a service for a 3rd party.
if mining pools would simply accept the fact that they are rewarded with 25btc right now for their work and that extra fee's are something only needed in atleast 2 decades time and not now. then YOU will realise that the fee is not needed right now. and are given/ required, purely for greedy purposes
then in the uptopian dream of zero greed, bitcoin can be used for microtransactions without a large cut.
if mining pools would simply just accept transactions into blocks instead of ignoring them all the time, there would be no issues.
i personally have a client thats in the advertising business and would love to be able to send amounts of under 20c to people as often as he liked, rather then having to set monthly payouts or minimal account balance before payout.. he thought bitcoin was the solution.. yet the tx fee due to mining pool greed is the cause of why he wont get involved in bitcoin