Hello Mahlon,
Here's my answer. Each Method App can use permission rights to control the user experience. Access,View, Customize and Manage are default and required rights that each app has. You may also enhance your app with additional rights like Edit, Create Delete and Aprrove.
Permissions are set of Rights. Currently in Method, we have not enabled the Rights section, so when you see the apps which are part of the pack provided by Method, you will notice that the Rights are disabled.
But if you create a custom app, you will notice that you can enable additional rights Edit, Create Delete and Approve by clicking on the Rights menu for enahacing the user experience. Once you enable them on the Rights menu, you will notice that those rights are also enabled on Permissions menu. This feature right now is not working in method.
In future we might consider to change that option.
-Inder