Excuse me, but you seem to be under the mistaken impression that if this change goes through, the PHP project will forcibly upgrade the PHP installation on these small sites.
This is a change for future PHP versions. It will in no way affect the version of PHP the sites you refer to run, unless they run said future version, which is impossible. I'd suggest you remind the businesses that own these sites that there would be absolutely no reason for the to upgrade PHP versions if the software they're currently running satisfies them.
The problem with the NOOP solution is that most of the small sites (the ones with nobody doing ongoing maintenance) are hosted on managed shared servers -- avoiding an upgrade isn't an option. The site owners will just wake up one day to an inbox full of UR WEB IS BROKE emails if they're lucky, and may even understand enough of what the ISPs first-level help desk drone tells them to get it fixed. (I imagine, though, that accusations of extortion would be more likely, since the quick fix would be a VPS with a non-refundable one-time setup fee.)
This is a change for future PHP versions. It will in no way affect the version of PHP the sites you refer to run, unless they run said future version, which is impossible. I'd suggest you remind the businesses that own these sites that there would be absolutely no reason for the to upgrade PHP versions if the software they're currently running satisfies them.