[iviyth0s]

*Update*
Well I uninstalled Messages and can still receive text messages so until I run into any issues, it's staying off.
I don't get the force close message anymore (obviously) and can now delete old threads of messages.

Though I wonder if it's supposed to take as long as it does, batch mode delete is impossible and will f/c handcent but I can delete them one at a time (with a hang time proportional to the size of the thread).