Confluence global vs space permissions

[Michal Ashby]

This seems like a poorly executed function:
In confluence if you define a Global permission you are able to restrict or allow permission to individual spaces.
If there is no global definition you are still able to enter space level access or restrictions.
The issue with the latter is it will never function until there is a global permission defined.
At very least there should be a warning surfaced when assigning or restricting that the global variable is not set if the intent here is staging access.
Or to take it a step further: No global permission -> you cannot restrict or add to a space with a warning suggesting the global permission needs to be set.

[Nic Brough [Adaptavist]]

That's not the way it works, or, if it is, it's a very poor explanation.

Global permissions define a handful of global things, mainly, who can log in, who can administrate the system, who can create spaces and so-on.

Space permissions define who can do what in a space.

One of the space permissions allows users to restrict pages, hiding them, or preventing edits from people who would normally be able to do so because the space permissions allow them to do it

There are no global restrictions.  It's all space level, and I'm not sure why you'd need a warning about "you are about to limit read/edit access to this page to the group you are naming in this box", as that's what it's for.