Turns out this site doesn't send the verification email!
Had been trying to register for a few weeks now with multiple email providers. At first thought it was email provider issue, then thought it was "Admin approval is slow" issue.
But after trying to register with a login I used before, I found the account had already been approved. It just doesnt send a verification email telling you its been created! So possibly I had already created a trail of old accounts, which ended up getting purged bc I never knew they existed!
So heads up for other people who might be running into this issue.