Indeed. The more convoluted and painful a route is, the more likely it will work out.
There is some nice work with Ru catalysts (or was it Rh?) that can C-H functionalise a variety of azoles; from memory thiazoles were not so good yield wise but I think they worked. The functionalisation goes via the coordinated N-heterocyclic carbene in this system, so I'd expect selectivity to be very good for C2. I'll see if I can think of the ref.
NB: I've done a (non-Stille) Pd coupling on a similar iodide to yours, and the N(Boc)2 protected iodide behaved very nicely.