Yep, for now the alternative to toggling between chat tabs is to use one of the plugins for the right hand side and use the normal chat window on the left side.
So, say, you were doing a raid and needed to see the raid chatting going on. You could then have your raid chat tab selected on the left hand side. Now, if you also wanted to see all your whispers for friends and the odd snidy comments about the raid leader and that dpser that isn't pulling their weight or the healer that isn't healing you .. etc rofl .. yes, I know it happens rofl
, then you could use the Whisper chat plugin on the right hand side.
Obviously if you also used Skada or Omen/recount you would have to wait until the fighting was over before checking what whispers you missed but then again you should be paying attention to the fight than whisper in the first place :P