I added this mod to ATM 8 and maybe its a ATM 8 overall issue with many other mods in the pack but changing the whitelist does nothing, for example changing it to minecraft:creeper and then restarting the server ignore the list and defaults back to villager so regardless of the list it just uses villager

Have you tried editing the config while the server is not running? I have also experience something like that from other mods

yes i restarted the server before editing and also after, no changes, and if this mod does work as standalone then it must be a modpack issue