Your configuration looks the same as mine in the current project (apart from timeouts and sent notifications).
If you can see the expected values from the PVO then it sounds like your configuration is correct.
Does it act any different with different users? Is the approver different user than submitter and different than the person to whom the role is requested? (Just out of curiosity as I've had some issues with earlier 7.2 SPs when the requester/approver has same mskeys.)
Is the PVO deleted or does it remain in DB? If it's deleted that would suggest the execution flows through the workflow.
Hope the message gets solved soon,
regards, Tero