Very poor communication by Microsoft and a sensationalist press that likes to present things in their worst light. This is a mandatory patch. That’s it. Mind, it’s a little disconcerting to read that if you don’t have it you won’t receive any more security updates, but cut through the fog and you figure out pretty quickly that Microsoft is establishing a new baseline with the thing, and that further security patching to the OS begins here. Why somebody couldn’t just have said so in so many words is a bit of a mystery. Win8.x already has enough of a bad press to warrant a little extra care with the press releases. IMHO.
I would think that MS would or should update any computers that lack the patch itself automatically?