The Distributor has not been installed correctly. Could not enable database for publishing
I think I have nailed it, 
what I did is very simple

A call to the procedure sp_adddistpublisher was missing.


  Configures a Publisher to use a specified distribution database. This
  stored procedure is executed at the Distributor on any database. Note
  that the stored procedures sp_adddistributor (Transact-SQL) and
  sp_adddistributiondb (Transact-SQL) must have been run prior to using
  this stored procedure.


I have run added the last command on the script below step01:

--==============================================================
-- step 01 --  configuring the distributor
-- tell this server who is the distributor and the admin password to connect there

-- create the distributor database
--==============================================================

use master
exec sp_adddistributor 
 @distributor = N'the_same_server'
,@heartbeat_interval=10
,@password='#J4g4nn4th4_the_password#'

USE master
EXEC sp_adddistributiondb 
    @database = 'dist1', 
    @security_mode = 1;
GO

exec sp_adddistpublisher @publisher = N'the_same_server', 
                         @distribution_db = N'dist1';
GO


I noticed that now when I call the following proc:

EXEC sp_get_distributor 




I see the distribution db installed  column equals 1, I should have noticed this indication before.

If it works I will leave this answer as it is, otherwise I will add to it accordingly.