I think having to choose EITHER timecode display OR a clock is frustrating. (Please, no responses telling me to use one of the clock visuals.)

I think one of the best solutions would be to use one of the clock visuals...

I actually agree with you on this, the clock as a selectable info mode is not an ideal solution. Now that I have gone watchless, I either have to fumble around for the remote, figure out where the 1 key is, press it several times, read the time, and cycle it back. This keeps my eyes off the road quite a bit, and my alternate solution is to find my cell phone, find a buttin that will activate the backlight, then wait for it to get rid of the locked keypad message and see the time. Neither of these solutions is that great. It was rather nice the way the clock hack worked in 1.03 since I had an easy way of just glancing at the time, much the same way I do to see the current playing song.