Are others also still having issues with Saitek Multi Panel not working properly when starting cold & dark?

Spad.next is essential if want to customise your logi panels or if you fly any other plane than the default ones. The crj for example will only work correctly with spad.next as it does not use the default
Simconnect commands but uses LVAR instead. Sooner or later youll need it if you want to make full use of your panels.