Matthew
All business functions have dependencies if you activate some other business function which have dependency not to allow MAA to be activated then you can not activate because some other business function is already activated in QAS.
Now why you are able to activate in DEV, you can clearly figure out by comparing your QAS and DEV SFW5. I assume both are not in sync in terms of business function set activation.
Please compare your business function sets one by one and check what is the difference other than MAA activation which you have already shared with us.