I think there is nothing wrong with the hack. The hack provides a means to execute a telnetd process in the router that lets you access the shell. If you flashed a modified firmware that contained a modified init script which launched a telnetd process to allow the same thing, it would work in the same way. You could adjust the hack so that it takes you directly to a shell without bothering to type in the username/password, this would save the router a small amount of work each time you login.
Wireless that's performing well will be very reliable, you could monitor the wireless performance by constantly pinging the router's IP address over the wireless. My 8970v1 used to kick everything off the wireless occasionally, but I could see from my computer's system log that the wireless had re-connected, and also by checking the router's dmesg (/proc/kmsg) which had some wireless-related error messages each time it happened. I don't think the kernel messages are available in the same place on a Broadcom platform such as the 9970.
Or you could write your own stats collecting script or program which remains logged in while between samples.