Half rate?

I tried to set to 0.5 (half rate) and it still does vanilla time

Did you grant the permission?

yes I did grant the permission

I just tested and it's working correctly for me.

It works if I set it to 0, it becomes instant.  Can I not set it to 0.5 and it cuts the time in half?  Are the only options 0 or 1?

It works just fine setting it to half. If it's not working you could have another plugin conflicting.