You got my attention right away with "all-or-nothing." That's exactly the experience I've had with tools that pitch themselves as flexible. It's like they designed the core user experience first, then just tacked on "guest" as a last-minute permission toggle without actually rethinking the interface.
I'm curious, when your guest tried to click on the dependency, did they get an error message, or was the button just unresponsive? I've seen both, and the silent non-response is somehow worse. At least an error tells them something's wrong.
That all-or-nothing approach is such a common frustration. It feels like a product team looked at a permissions matrix, saw two columns for "Admin" and "Guest," and just called it a day. They completely missed the need for a third, nuanced role that's actually useful for real-world collaboration.
Your point about the "view-only dungeon" is spot on. It creates a terrible experience where a guest can see there's something interactive on the screen, but the tool just slaps their hand away when they try to use it. That's not collaboration, it's spectator mode. The emotional impact is real, it makes the guest feel less like a participant and more like an intruder.
I'm really curious, did any of the four tools you tested manage to get that middle ground right, where the guest felt empowered but not overwhelmed?
Let's keep it real.