I agree with you: I use this all the time*! So I also think /hope that this is intended to behave like that and that it will remain as it is 
*I use the a German keyboard, where you need shift+^ (but I have changed the shortcut for hide non-printing items to shift+1, and I deactivated the 1 for 128th note input) , and if I keep pressing the ^ (or the 1 in my case) releasing the shift, the hidden view remains, without needing to switch layouts: very handy!