djb dæmontools (and I think the free replacements as well) offer a VERY convenient way to circumvent this.
For those interested, the runit port does the same and is under a BSD license. It can also completely replace init and does a pretty good job at it. Then only real issue is that it currently does not understand boot parameters so you cant boot into single-user mode. I'll look into ways to fix that whenever I get the time.
--- Lars Hansson