ME TOO! I would like a Always On choice, but GRE doesn't seem to want us to have it.
Alas, it was not to be... I suspect it is due to the life of batteries available at the time,which was about 1000mAH at the time of the Design. Now it's 2400mAH and soon to get better.
Running 1800mAH and very happy as they keep charge for several days.
Page 62 of the pdf owner's manual:
"In any backlight mode, you can press and hold for about 1
second to force the backlight on full time. Press while the
backlight is on to turn it off."