MS won't fix this, if they had any intention they would have with the last big update. I'm sure this has been asked by many many Zune owners. As for 3rd party, I don't think the Zune will ever be cracked seeing the progress made by the community seems to be almost zero. It could happen but as of today 3rd party firmware like Rockbox or something aren't coming.
I didn't know the Zune lacked gapless playback, that's pretty weak.