Bug? Cant play audio and add affect

I have been using Audacity for a long time, and one feature that I have used is the ability to play audio and let a effect/plugin understand from it (a bit like the noise reducer does). I have especially been using reafir_standalone (VST) that need sound for it to build an automatic noise profile. I just upgraded to 3.2.1 and now I cant have the playback on and open an effect and neither can I hit play when the effect is open. I rolled back to 3.1.3 (thanks a lot Wayback Machine!) and now it is as it has always been. Something changed during the switch from 3.1 to 3.2 (I tried 3.2.0 and the problem was already there) that deleted this feature. Please bring it back!

Windows: 10

Realtime VST2 functionality has been (temporarily?) lost as a consequence of introducing VST3 compatibility.
[ reafir_standalone is either VST or VST2, too old to be VST3 ]

Also, read this post: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/effects-are-not-real-time-disappear-from-view-after-being-run/66047/5