Now this was a really useful post. I have noticed this for some time with my STTNG and just written it off to a bug/quirk with my machine. Definitely will lock a ball at the neutral zone but I have never seen it light during game play. I even messed around with it for a while with the glass off and ran through series of lighting and completing the 3 neutral zone tasks but could never get it to light.
Wow - now I can sleep better tonight!