Hey Tom.
WordPress sees these pages as blog pages using the index.php file, so the “Blog Sidebar Layout” in the Customizer controls the sidebar for them.
So that’s the default, right? As in, use the default blog page sidebar layout for these plug-in pages.
However, I still don’t know why I can’t override the layout of a specific page using the per page settings you provide. E.g. I have a Members page, which is targeted/linked to the buddyPress Members page. When I edit that page and set the side bars to Content (no sidebars), it does not change the page layout. That’s the part I don’t understand… it would be useful if it did.
…any reason why you don’t use it to display your preferred sidebar layout on those pages?
None really. Although I wasn’t sure how to have different sidebar content for a specific page. Jetpack allows some level control here, allowing you to set visibility of widgets for certain meta values, but not sure that would work here.
Hiding is good enough for now, but I would love to do it through the page editor settings, not code.