I had a part that seemed to always have one of the text frames at the top of the page squished. I’d fix it in the master page. Then all the other parts would show the same frame stretched too low.
Mystery solved: if the margins on some parts are even a little different than margins on other parts that share the same master page, they will respond differently when you push out master page changes with the apply button. And depending on which page is showing in engrave mode, the master page when opened for editing, will display differently.
I don’t know if this is intended behavior or an unintended consequence.
It sounds like you are actually changing the page by doing a page override by double clicking it instead of changing the actual master page. If you are editing a master page, you will see a L->R R->L area where you can copy the change over to the other page before you hit the apply button. Are you seeing this? Another clue - a page override of any kind will show a red triangle on that particular page in the pages section (upper right) of Engrave Mode.
EDIT - After re-reading your post, I feel you are correctly changing Master Pages and this is, as you say, a little quirk (or feature). I tried to delete my post, but was unable.
I know I inadvertently stumbled through this myself and if this isn’t your issue, (sorry)… it may help someone else out there.
