Does your pppoe0 interface still exist when it's trying to reconnect?
For curiosity sake, while it's not working, go to Diag > Command, in the PHP box, and try:
pfSense_ngctl_attach(".", "ng0");
Or perhaps
pfSense_ngctl_attach("ng0", "pppoe0");
Failing that, give this a try: Edit usr/local/sbin/ppp-linkdown and comment out or remove this line (keep an unaltered copy around though so you can restore the copy if it doesn't help)
/usr/sbin/ngctl shutdown $1: