The reason for no buttons lighting up upon entering a rom can be found here (this fix will possibly work as long as you are getting lights flashing while in the retropie menu system):

https://retroarcadebuild.blogspot.com/2023/11/rgbcommander-update.html

@lolonois oh man thats all way over my head lol

A little more searching and I found a great thread that describes this: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/17533/how-do-i-get-these-led-arcade-buttons-to-light-up