OK. I found bug #5637 (https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5637).

Apparently originally all mafw plugins were run by the 32mafw plugin. The bug was fixed by starting the plugins separately and removing 32mafw.

But 32mafw is NOT removed if it was there and you upgraded OTA. Which was my case (I originally had PR1.2 and upgraded to 1.3 OTA). I have never reflashed this particular N900.

So in theory I could go now and delete 32mafw. But this is what @jgbreezer has, and he has a problem.

[EDIT: I have deleted 32mafw after checking that, in theory, it shouldn't change anything. Have yet to reboot, but not now]

I don't really have much time to continue looking into this (music and video works for me, even though I rarely listen/watch anything on the N900).