Quote - When I save the PZ3 the little green "animated" icon next to Ambient Value in the MAT room is ON.  When I reopen the file it is OFF.

It behaves like this only if in following section parmR  is not correct:

nodeInput "Ambient_Value"
     {
     name "Ambient_Value"
     value 1.83751 0 10
     parmR "blablabla"  <----- change this to: "comm_ops_buttons_blue_PoserSurf"
     parmG NO_PARM
     parmB NO_PARM
     node NO_NODE
     file NO_MAP

I just checked this by saving with the KEY ICON "green" and then I edited PZ3 (I changed the line I marked above to something else). After reopening the KEY ICON was "gray" and animation didn't work on it.
BTW you will find plenty paraghraps like that in PZ3 so cannot tell you which one is the correct one.

And don't worry about values - you will find more of them like this.