1.0 isn't a total freeze, just a promise not to remove base syntax or features. If you write code for 1.0 now, it'll compile on a future 1.0 release. They are still planning on adding many more things, both in terms of libraries, and language features.

http://blog.rust-lang.org/2014/09/15/Rust-1.0.html

The things you've mentioned as torturous are mostly sugar on-top of the already implemented primitives, and are even being worked on ([n..m] slice notation, to name one).