Hi, Madhusudan. I saw your post in another thread and decided I needed to understand this possible feature gap better.
While I really need the cutoff feature myself when I teach Composition or other related rolling deadline type coursework, I agree that a site admin should be able to make decisions based on what is the general protocol used at his/her institution/organization.
I think I am understanding a little bit better now. Since I personally always either used the submit button or cutoff date options, I didn't understand that the "attempts reopened" option (which I usually set to manual for myself from the default never) is also highly dependent on using the submission button. I just tested it for myself and found the same results that "Edit submission" was still an option after the due date if the submit button and the cutoff date are not used.
Sooo...if I'm understanding it correctly, the use-case demand in this thread is that there be a way to set a hard deadline without using the submit button as the main default control, which I totally understand. From the other thread where it was suggested that a tracker item feature request be suggested, it seems there may be something in the tracker worth looking for on this subject. I will have a look today as I do understand why this option would be preferred in many organizations.