The easiest solution is to just have a rogue, or be the rogue, in the party, and ignore the rules. It's great, however, if you're not going to have one at all. It's easy to see how that could happen, all things considered.
Regarding the "recent" turn to DDs for rogues, if by recent they meant like since rogues were added to D&D, sure? They've always had Sneak Attack, I'm a little hazy on flanking attacks, however. It's always been one of my favorite classes to play. They were a little rough just starting out in BG, but got better, and the party size gave you the flexibility to have two, since you could just leave Imoen as ranged, and move her around a bit.
