I think we may be on 2 different pages.I have no problems with the stock lockscreen or setting it up the way I want. I hope this will post clear things up.
Pic 1 is my lockscreen setup. Stock clock widget removed and replaced with
NiLS Notifications. Clock disabled in widget settings. I like minimal also.

Pic 2 is lockscreen with a notification. Still pretty clean.
Pic 3 What the holy h**l!! The hideous white notification that shows up when I get a text or a missed call (there may be more but those are the only two I've seen) is what I'm trying to get rid of. I was hoping I had missed a checkbox or setting somewhere but I still haven't found anything even close.

I'm now somewhat (mostly?) sure that its baked into TW somewhere. Don't worry about it to much, like I said in my original post this isn't going to be my daily driver, maybe 5-6 days a month and I can live with it for the few texts I will get on those days.