Hi Andi,
having the same challenge (to protect organizer’s email in the-events-calendar plugin) I did exaclty what you suggested and have extended the functions.php file (at the end with your snippet from above).
Now I get the following (literally) output for the event organizer email:
E-Mail:
<!--CTX!--><span rel="a4312831be313631b2312331bd310b30be312c3194313331a5311d31b0311d31be3105309f311d319e311d31a6311a3198311b3164312231b931" class="cryptex " style="">XXX(at)XXXX-XXXX(dot)de</span><!--/CTX!-->
(I’ve replaced the right email here for this posting with XXXXX)
It seems that there is some interpretation missing. Any suggestion?
Thank you very much in advance!