Why is this change breaking the skin?

I have just gone to Kodi 17.0 and hate the fact that I don’t have “time remaining” shown.. So I tried to modify the Estuary skin and failed.

But then I realised I could use the Confluence skin so downloaded it and its fine.. But then I made the change that I have made many times in Kodi 16, documented here:

HOW-TO:Add_Time_Remaining_to_Confluence (wiki)

But when I made the change, it messes up the playback GUI.. But whats weird is that when I uncomment out my lines, its stays broken and only works again when I DELETE them.. I am a bit confused, as surely uncommenting them should be fine..

So let me be specific… The line of interest are this:

<label>$LOCALIZE[31049] $INFO[Player.Fibel>$LOCALIZE[31049]

<label>$INFO[Player.Duration(hh:mms)]</label>

I then change them and add extra lines so it reads like this:

<!label>$LOCALIZE[31049] $INFO[Player.Fibel>$LOCALIZE[31049]
<label>Runtime: $INFO[Player.Duration(hh:mms)] (Ends $INFO[Player.FinishTime])</label>

<!label>$INFO[Player.Duration(hh:mms)]</label>
<label>-$INFO[Player.TimeRemaining(hh:mms)]</label>

After this change, the Skin is no longer correct and the GUI is broken.. So I then uncomment/comment the lines:

<label>$LOCALIZE[31049] $INFO[Player.Fibel>$LOCALIZE[31049]
<!label>Runtime: $INFO[Player.Duration(hh:mms)] (Ends $INFO[Player.FinishTime])</label>

<label>$INFO[Player.Duration(hh:mms)]</label>
<!label>-$INFO[Player.TimeRemaining(hh:mms)]</label>

And its STILL broken.. The only way I can get it working is to delete my lines, and then it works again, like this:

<label>$LOCALIZE[31049] $INFO[Player.Fibel>$LOCALIZE[31049]

<label>$INFO[Player.Duration(hh:mmConfuseds)]</label>

This is standard XML stuff.. So why is this breaking the skin.. Even when I comment out my lines.. Is there something else I am missing which is new in Kodi 17.0?