Me, I regard the emoticon eating as a feature, not a bug, but it's nice to have a community like this with this level of support for users to get their phone to work the way they need and want.

And not a hack, but for convenience I'd suggest ProfileMatic as nearly indispensable, particularly if you have regular times when you mustn't forget to silence your phone or change other behaviors. Classes, regular meetings with the big boss, religious services, bedtime, uninterrupted concentration hour, etc., etc., etc.