Folder and lifecycle state security is a useful feature, but it can be really hard to use. For example, it's hard to find out which users have access to which folders. Likewise if a user doesn't have access, it can be hard to figure out why. If you are managing many folders, you are forced to manage them one at a time.
One possible improvement to provide a view like in the Effective Folder Permissions app, which unrolls the security settings to show a per-user view.