The alternative is to just not have Egyptian hieroglyphs in Unicode. The phallus is a frequently used symbol in Middle Egyptian. Then again, what's there is half-assed. There are no joining characters, so nothing displays right. And while you'll probably have the characters you need most of the time if you're dealing with Old Egyptian or Late Egyptian texts, Serapis help you if you're working with Ptolemaic-period texts.
At least the situation is better than with cuneiform, where Unicode alone can't represent a text because the characters drastically vary over time and you need to make sure you're using the right font.
The fact, however, is that Unicode is not sufficient for scholars who use Egyptian hieroglyphs or cuneiform. For the former, most people seem to use JSesh. For the latter, line drawings + transliterations.
I wonder if academical papers of today won't be taken seriously in the future because some of the symbols we use will have turned into a cultural faux pas? I hope not.
