Usually the lerules disable will go ahead and start the firewall, but not 100% reliably.
Pretty much nothing about the FreePBX firewall is reliable though. I’ve never used it in production, but the more I test things the less confidence I have in it.
Couple of interesting updates and the reason why I posted this question.
Inspite of the certificate expired warning provided by FreePBX via Email & Dashboard, I see my server’s domain’s certificate is renewed correctly. Is there any other certificate that is not renewed?
The firewall module of FreePBX shows firewall status as enabled. I have not manually enabled it in the last few months.
Once the warnings are there, they won’t go away until you clear it.
If you don’t want to use the FreePBX firewall and know what you are doing, then disable or uninstall from the Module Admin page, otherwise it tends to rise from the grave.