In Europe you're degrading all the way to basic SMS because as far as i know MMS never worked properly. So basic text only, no emoji's or media attachments.
If not being able to send emoji or media attachments for a couple of hours is a 'big issue' for you, then I really feel for you, honestly. I have no idea what that would be like, but for me it's pretty trivial, Like I think it would be for most.
It's also used by businesses and governments. For example to report thrash that has been placed by the side of the road, you would send a whatsapp with a image of the issue. Insurance companies also use whatsapp for initiating a claim.
There are backups for these systems of course but it is inconvenient and will cause some disruption.
Inconvenient is exactly the right issue for this, which was, pretty much, my point.