ALSO: I too reject the WONTFIX argument. If unbundled, the ability to edit cascade protected pages would be handed to a few trusted users who do not have the ability to protect pages in the normal way. If they used this user-right to bypass that restriction, it would logically be grounds for immediate removal of said user-right. Any tool is open to abuse; it is up to the community to forestall and address any such abuse.

Chiming in at the invitation of Xaosflux. If I understand the technicalities correctly, this unbundling could address a fairly frequent matter of contention, and improve the ability of some of en.wiki's most dedicated contributors to fix serious and visible issues.