FYI, I am working on my phi-3 shield design right now, a revision of my popular LCD keypad shield with lots of add-ons. It will have what these generic shields don't. You may choose which pin drives the LCD back light and only 3 resistors for 6 buttons on one analog input, of course compatible with phi-1 and phi-2 software and phi_prompt user interface library. I will be releasing the 20X4 version shield first. It will also feature a small proto area for and IC up to 16 pins, for example, shift registers etc can be used to sense/control multiple things via the RJ-45 ports. You can also use DAC or other stuff on the proto area.
Here is an idea:
