Yes, the Poweramp lock screen feature is totally different from what I had previously, so this is out.
Restoring defaults did not work either.
Notifications is already enabled for Poweramp, to show on top.
Searched high and low in various forums posts, reddit threads, self help websites and finally found what is the problem.
I did not set permission for bluetooth, to allow nearby devices access to this app.
Once I allowed permission, the lockscreen widget came back on
I don't allowed permission and the lockscreen widget is gone again.
Now the next question is why do I need to allow this bluetooth permission thing in order to use the lockscreen widget?
To allow nearby devices access to this app ........ this doesn't sound very safe, is it?
mikhail Liew's post in Lockscreen widget is missing was marked as the answer