Shoutbox

Erm.
To my information, Plus! sends the protocol command for the "/brb", "/lunch", and "/onphone" in the format of the earlier (WLM8.5 protocol), thus older versions of Messenger could display them appropriately. However, WLM14 converts them automatically to it's own protocol status-detection. Therefore, "Be Right Back" is displayed as away, and so are the other statuses.
Now, here is where Plus! fits in. Because Microsoft removed those statuses, Messenger Plus! Live comes in handy. It can display "Personalised Statuses." With personalised statuses, not only you can display your well favoured "BRB" status, but also an "AutoMessage" to it, so to tell people that they could leave a message and you would definetely get back to them at a later time.
The Messenger team are ignorant enough to not listen to what the "minority" (in this case 17 users) want, but look forward to what the virtual world needs as a whole. Thus, creating a perfect application that is used by millions of people. Use Plus!, it is an amazing application that can do the job.