OK, smoking fresh info. New ioFTPD 6.1.2, extracted as per default settings to C:\, no changes made to any file at all, firewall shut down, lo and behold, it starts fine, it shows up in netstat -ano and i am able to login with default account. All well. Discard what i said earlier, it seems the firewall is the culprit somehow, turning it on gives some undesired effects so i think i have to start with tweaking that one before "production state" is achieved.
Thanks a bunch Carpo and Yil, for your patience and help.