This remote issue was found as a new part of Kodi 17.1 (it simply re-maps some keys and treats it incorrectly as a joystick). It is a Kodi "feature" and not hardware related (as SPMC still works the same) and there were threads about fixing it here from April 2017:
Simple fix has been posted in the related thread by @pcristi:
http://www.futeko.com/newforum/index.php?topic=1849.0
Disable Joystick Support in Kodi 17.1
Add-ons / My add-ons / Peripheral libraries / Joystick Support / Disable
Remember to exit and reboot Kodi.
Remote is still working for me as it was

[firmware 2.0.3 and Kodi 17.3]