Yeah, that is the behavior I had seen previously. But the "highlight and magical paste" didn't seem to occur. So then I tried the Ctrl-v thing to paste it into the field. And that didn't work either.
Looking back, it may be an issue with the Linux distribution i had been using.
Yeah, that's an issue with Linux of late, so many distributions, so little time or resources.
In some respects, Linux may be it's own worse enemy with all those various distributions.
OK, probably more than you wanted to see...
Long story short, once I got past that install quirk, MC is running quite well for my needs on this MX Linux laptop.
Though, I still stand by my O vs 0, 5 vs S and 1 vs l comment.