Restricting access to specific forum sections

[dal]

I'd like to suggest an improvement to the way admins can restrict certain members from accessing specific forum sections.

On 3.x it was possible to do this by setting up a custom permission mask and assigning it to that member. This was really useful as it was both effective and subtle i.e. it worked without drawing unnecessary negative attention to that member.

Unfortunately in 4.x permission masks were removed so it's no longer possible to do this. 

Currently the only option is to create a whole new member group every time you want to restrict a member from accessing or posting in any given forum section.

This has several disadvantages:

• Separate member groups are needed for each set of restrictions
• Restricted members will have a different group under their name instead of 'member'. It is possible to name all the restricted groups 'member' however that is likely to become very confusing for the admin when trying to assign them.
• Restricted member groups show up on the member search and online users list filter which means it is possible for anyone to go and look up every member who has had restrictions applied to them.

Ideally it would be good if there was a way to restrict someone's access to specific forum sections without them having to be placed inside a publicly visible, special group that is separate from the rest of the community.