AX 2012 'Use futures date as Requirement date'

There's a master plan parameter for Planned purchase orders 'Use futures date as Requirement date'. In the old days (before 2012) I'm sure that if you didn't tick that option, and had a requirement within your purchase lead time, you got a planned purchae order with an order date in the past (and a futures message). That meant the the buyer had a simple way of identifying the planned purchase orders which required expediting - they simply sorted the planned purchase orders by order date.

But in AX 2012 I'm seeing that all planned purchase orders are created with today as the order date (even though I do not have that option ticked).

Is this by design - or this a bug?

Thanks

Tim