Actually the way it works pleases me a lot just as it is, and once I learned how to use the Select buttons (Surface and vertrex on the control panel). Try it.
Below is an image with just the transom of this boat selected using select-surface and holding the shift key down I an able to select as many surfaces as I like, all appearing in a very visible way.
http://www.tomah.com/Delliott/selectsurface.gif
Please notice the wonderful and clear cross hatch pattern that appears when this method is used, just great! I was pleasently surprised when this happened.
Also if vertex is selected (Control panel) all the vertices do not have to be visible (Which can cause confusion if too many are shown), if you know about where the one is you want, click with the mouse and it will appear, very nice indeed.
Would a off an on button on the nav bar be nice, yep but its not much of a reach to the select panel at the left. In addition this method ensures you don't disturb things accidentally
