I've upvoted you, but this has bugged me for awhile.
While I understand that we should be calling it a DDOS, it isn't an 'attack'; so that seems a little severe.
Can't we just go back to calling it 'slashdotted'? =)
'Hug of death' isn't saying it's an attack/DDOS. It's equivalent to your suggestion of 'slashdotted' but probably a much more frequently used and relevant term.
I'm pretty sure the "hug" part means it's not an attack.