I just deleted all rules, switched back from Home zone to Work zone, set policy on auto-decide, rebooted:
OK launching Firefox, and I'm being asked, although auto-decide was set:
Then I look at the rule that was created, and although the alert stated "friends in/out", the rule states "friends and internet out otherwise ask me" ... I guess the alert was only related to the web shield interference.
also noticing that all system related rules that were automatically created after the software install, once deleted, and not created again.