I'm the OP and my phone exhibited the same problems it did all those months ago. I tried your method a few times and it eventually worked! Thanks so much!!!
Edit: Whoops, apparently I forgot to quote my savior, eli2k. His tapping method. Oh yeah. My power button didn't feel stuck, nor was I power cycling, nor does it feel any different now that it's fixed, but his method eventually fixed it after a short five minutes of trying.