Print screen of products table information
I have now tried your approach. Details: Check for available, Category / Product - Tiger, SKU - 123, Name - Tiger1, check for unlimited, price 25.00, weight - 0, cart - Tiger1 card description, short - 4 sentences in three paragraphs. Two .jpg pictures for catalogue and detail. I did not tick add product options.
I then checked the category and product tables using phpMyAdmin (1&1 is my ISP) - Categories said 22 rows completed (as expected); Products said Creation and Update at exactly the same time, and no rows.
The website is chengyan.nickdfg.com. I have attached a zip file with copies of the print screens.