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There is one more change I'd like to make that is independent; re-define "dust" based on the floating transaction fee (e.g. a dust output is any output with a value of less than 1/4 the minimum fee-per-kb required to get into one of the next 6 blocks). And make any transactions with dust outputs non-standard, so they're not included in the memory pool or relayed.
Why not applying the same logic you described above? (they only get dropped if they can't fit in your memory pool)
Because dust outputs are more trouble than they're worth. They bloat wallets, cost more in fees to spend than they're worth (unless you go to ridiculous lengths to spend them), and are abused as a side-channel-in-the-blockchain-communication-mechanism.
If I could go back in time, I would go back and try to convince Satoshi to make them non-standard to begin with....