I regularly send payments with 5c-10c in fees and it works just fine. Sometimes takes a bit longer, if we're in a high-demand period or going through a spam attack[0].
The "small block policy" view[1] is held by nearly every technical participant of the bitcoin space[2][3], myself included. Claiming that blockstream are somehow "forcing" anything is pure conspiracy nonsense.
[0] https://bravenewcoin.com/news/bitcoin-spam-attack-stressed-n...
[1] that is, the "let's start by doubling the blocksize with segwit first, analyze the results and then talk about further increasing it" view. not sure how valid the "small block" label is, considering that the people you're labeling with it want to double the block size.