After debugging the code and ensuring the matrices are generated OK, and the filter is applied I started to suspect that the problem does not rely in the code, but in the base image I use for the buttons.
The base image is a Photoshop generated 24bit PNG with transparencies and all colors are shades of gray.
I opened it with Microsoft Office Picture Manager and went to Edit Pictures... and to the color tool.
To my surprise changing the Hue there also did not change the color. I had to move the Amount
slider to get some color, only then the hue had any effect.
So for all practical purposes this question is solved.
Note: I should have known better, since I researched also how to convert a color from RGB to HSL o get the desired Hue. And the conversion algorithm clearly differentiates Achromatic colors from Chromatic colors. Achromatic colors are those where R=G=B and for them the hue value is undefined and has no meaning since the saturation is 0. So probably applying a Hue shift to an Achromatic value will not change it at all.