PHP stripped

but this has nothing to do with Page Builder CK in my case ...

I have lots of sites using this code successfully in a Custom Module, with DirectPHP activate and Options | Prepare Content set to Yes. Nothing is stripped or commented out. Only when I use a CKPB module does this happen. Not even Sourcerer keeps the code from beign commented out in a CKPB module.

no, I'm explaining you that in my test I was into an article, without Page Builder CK. I can not make it work
I finally got it working, because I did not enable the directphp plugin ! now checking in page builder ...

in the page builder ck module, have you enabled "Activate content plugins" in the advanced options ?
works fine, and using

{?php echo date("Y"); ?}

this avoid the editor filtering and works with DirectPHP

Yes, with "Activate content plugins" enabled and Direct PHP both enabled and disabled, it fails.

have you tried with my code ?
as I got it working, you shall also