Adding new sections and snippet types to Categories without removing protections
 

I know that I can do this by removing the protection, but it doesn't seem like it should be necessary.

I have hidden (toggled Shown to off) the ones I don't want to show, but now I want to add others and it won't let me. This doesn't match the behaviour with tag domains, and I think it would be good if I could add to pre-existing Categories without having to remove the protection. This would let me add new content later, but still have the specifics I need now.

The specific example is I want to remove Class from Individual, and add Archetype. I could I guess clone Individual, hide the original, and use my new IndividualTake2 category... but it just feels like the wrong thing to do somehow, and it's basically just database bloat at that point, right?

There's critical difference between tags and category structure. With tags, each is independent and gets added to a list that is always alphabetized (unless you specifically order the tags, at which point you have to remove protection). With the category structure, any new section types and/or snippet types are added with positioning. Even if you just leave them at the end of the existing list, they are still added to the positioning information within the category definition. This positioning requires that you remove protection from the category, since you are fundamentally modifying the category, albeit in only a small way.

If all you do is ADD new stuff to a category, you are completely safe. Yes, you need to remove protection, but all the changes you're making are "safe", since they are purely additive. So adding the "Archetype" is perfectly fine. Hiding the "Class" is also perfectly fine, since you're simply hiding it and not actually deleting it.

The detailed explanation about removing protection strives to explain this. However, it seems that we could have probably done a better job with the explanation. If you have any suggestions on how we could re-phrase the text to make it clearer, please share them, as I'm certain you won't be the only user that gets confused by this detail. :)

Your gut reaction against cloning the topic is a good one. The best approach here is to add what you need to the existing category and hide what you don't want. To do that, you'll need to remove protection, but you should be fine.

Hope this helps! :)

Will changing the order of sections in a category cause issues? Should I make a copy if I want to do that?

Changing the order will NOT cause significant issues. There is no need to make a copy for something like that.

The situation where changing the order will make a difference is if you import shared/published content from someone else in the future. If the person(s) creating that content don't make the same ordering change, all topics you import will have the original order, while all topics you create will have the new order. So there may be some differences in how the information is organized. However, it will only be an ordering difference, and all content will still be there.

Hope this helps! :)