Hmm...interesting. You got that "username" already exists error, too. I had it appear on a "default" WLPE install.
I dunno what’s causing your issue, though...
I got it becuase i once added a user in that way, so I got the user with blank username

gosh! So, every other trying to be blank gets the error. I changed my tpl to use input with name=username and label Your e-mail adress to have it working right. I still do have to press submit twice because hidden input with name=email doesn’t get a value until page refresh

With that I don’t know how to get around
//Why use windows since there is a door?//