LabVIEW can act as an ActiveX client for any program that can act as an ActiveX server. As far as MATLAB is concerned, I do not know of any ActiveX controls that they have exposed. I took a quick look and did not find anything. Have you sent a similar question to MATLAB support? I would be interested in the answer.
I think you are on the right track...to maintain the features you will probably need an ActiveX server from MATLAB.