As this has been going for quite a while and it is very annoying, let me share a quick fix:
git clone https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-themes.git cd /usr/share/themes sudo mv TraditionalGreen TraditionalGreen_orig sudo ln -s $HOME/mate-themes/desktop-themes/TraditionalGreen . In my case, the theme I was using derived from TraditionalGreen. This makes such a difference in terms of usability. Hope it gets properly fixed soon. Jordi