> You only have to make sure they do not use this logger without knowing about new format, which can be done in various ways (like prefixing the name of the logger, for example).

That's the problem, right there. I don't think the ways of doing this are bulletproof and require too much cooperation between third-party libraries.

> using non-legacy formatting in logging message is really cumbersome

I don't see how it's "really cumbersome". A simple approach is outlined in

http://plumberjack.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/supporting-alternative-formatting.html

So that logging using brace formatting could be as simple as 

logger.misc(__('User {} logged in', username))

which is also described in the documentation here:

https://docs.python.org/3.3/howto/logging-cookbook.html#use-of-alternative-formatting-styles