Well this is embarrassing. As pointed out to me by PoKeys support, a motor has to be selected in the right column to activate all the boxes. I thought that's what the check boxes were for but the text for the motor must be selected, not the check box. Once any motor is selected everything works like in mach3. Selecting a different motor deselects the last.
I think as a human interface technique the first motor should have been preselected when the dialog was opened to prevent this weirdness.
Really want to thank Pokeys support for helping me out over the weekend.. Awesome !