Unfortunately now it's impossible to revert back to a proper behaviour.
All types of new and old images tried with no help.
It looks like a silent (there were no question to update) FP update (thus not a specific PLi bug) with a bad code. I can remember such problems years ago
Another "great" one from Dream Multimedia
btw try this also:
go to standby from a menu (menu-shutdown-goto standby) and look at LCD.
Garbled clock with a "Shutdown/Standb" line at the top. (it's the same in 1.10 images - not a PLi bug)