I noticed that when I set my defaultValue for a dropdown, altho it is correctly selected in the drop down when I first add my component to the page it does not write the defaultValue to the corresponding JCR until I edit the component and save it. Even if I just open the corresponding dialog and click OK now my component works as expected because the values have been added to the JCR.
I am sure there is an important piece that I am missing here, does anyone knows how defaultValues that are required in order for the component to render properly can be added to the JCR when they are first added to the page?