I think this is a regression. (I don't have any evidence of that beyond "I swear that's the way it used to word" ). Then again the wiki I most edit at I was an admin, so that could be it.

Alternatively it could just display the protection log snippet like deleted pages do

(In reply to comment #1)

I think this is a regression. (I don't have any evidence of that beyond "I
swear that's the way it used to word" ). Then again the wiki I most edit at I
was an admin, so that could be it.

Alternatively it could just display the protection log snippet like deleted
pages do

That's surely what has always happened for protection from creation, we even have bug 24511.
https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=MediaWiki:Protectedpagetext/en&action=history never had such a thing; did we ever show the big red box with log entries in "View source" mode?

Only those with the rights to edit the page can see the log entry above the textarea; when viewing source the log entry does not appear at all, only the generic MediaWiki:Protectedpagetext.

But those who cannot edit the page (who are instead given the view source) are also probably the ones for whom the log entry would be most useful as it would in many cases tell them just why they cannot edit it.

So this is indeed an issue - the view source should have the same behaviour as the edit in terms of log snippetting.

For reference, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=edit&uselang=chicken (you'll need to log out if you're an admin or whatever there)

This is like Bug 10261 except now just when viewing source.