if you pin the payment method it should keep it under you close the payment journal

so are you saying that if i am paying multiple vendors today, i should "pin" the method, and it will stay that way until I close the payments window?

yes, that is correct

Sage made a change to allow you, in vendor setup, to say 'I always pay the vendor by xxxx'
so without pinning,
if I select this vendor, the payment method is xxxx
then I select a vendor with no default payment method, so Sage defaults to the first payment method in this list (cheque),
which I change to say, cash
then I select the next vendor with no default payment method, and Sage puts me back to cheque

if you click the little pin besides the method (to pin it), as you select vendors the ping-pong game stops and the payment method
stays the same
if you don't have a pin, you are not running the Dec 13th version (2017.1)

so the only downside to pinning the payment method, you lose the automatic payment method when using a vendor setup with a method of payment

Thank you very much for pointing that out to me. Really appreciate it!
Going to take some getting used to. Will continue to hope they will revert.