well, after lots of research, i'm finding myself answering my own question
i loved s2u2 but the apparent bugs drove me nuts. until they fix them, i found pLock.
it's similar to the "Device Lock" today screen item built into the touch, but it has an option to automatically lock the device after a determined amount of time, which is a good enough replacement for locking when the screen is turned off.
if anyone is interested, you can find it here:
http://pda.jasnapaka.com/plock/
*edit* just like with s2u2, make sure you have pop-up notifications turned off because when you do get a notification, the softkeys are unlocked. considering the date of the last release, i doubt this will be fixed
*edit 2* also note that it only locks the screen, not the hardware buttons... this is a good and bad thing because you are still able to answer calls with the send button, but the camera button can still be used also (i never tested the hardware buttons on s2u2)