Yeah, qksms’s handling of group messages is really klunky, too.
Deku SMS looks nice, but it doesn’t understand group SNS at all. Neither does Connect You (it also doesn’t have search-by-name for texts, and has trouble linking contacts to texts). Simple SMS is now verboten.
Despite warts, I’m stuck with qksms as well.
Edit Fossify Messages has been released on fdroid. It supports groups, looks nice, and is working for me so far!