The Bounce simulation with the A4988 STEP/DIR driver works:
If I feed it a "mode 3" and hook up pin 4 to EN, then thengs get crazy, exactly as the pause you describe in:
I think you were also misled by the dronebots text you quoted:
...in that it has identifies the direction and pulse pins backwards. It would be better as:
AccelStepper stepper(1,7,6) // AccelStepper:DRIVER, PUL, DIR