Try it out. If you create a product, add in product variations (product choices), save it as inactive, and then clone that product, the clones can never be made active. You can set the active checkbox but they don't show up in the store.

Not only that, but if you create a clone of an active product with product variations / choices, and set that clone to inactive (4th checkbox) upon creation, you can never make it active.

The only way to make a clone of a product with variations and have it be active is to have the parent active and create the clone as an active product. If you do that you can change the flag back and forth just fine.

Clearly, this doesn't work for real world scenarios as you don't want products you're busy editing being visible even for a moment.

Could someone else to try this out and confirm the issue before I post this in bugs - perhaps someone knows a fix.