Looks like editing the keymap would be the way to go.
I can keep the power off function when I hold stop and get the menu by pressing stop without holding it down. I will have to modify the following:
action menu, button mode | button release, button mode // original
action menu, button stop | button release, button stop // press stop to bring up menu
action stop, button select | button release, button select // press select to stop
action context, button stop | button repeat, button stop // sound context menu, keep consistent with stop
It would be quite troublesome if I would have to compile rockbox everytime a new build comes out. Is there a patch of some type/hex editing that I can do?