Some folders might display information when "sort by last modified" is the selected filter to view files, others, when "sort by A-Z" and so on. The current way might look like an issue for newbies, for example, as the preferences keep being "reset" every time.
Did it look like this for you? We changed it a few years ago in response to the opposite complaint: that when people changed the display settings for one folder, it wasn't remembered for just that folder.
Created attachment 143927 [details] "Use common display style for all folders" enabled by default No o_o. It isn't this way in KDE 5.23. Neither in Fedora nor in KDE Neon (I tried the latest ISO neon-user-20211116-1405).
Ops, I misunderstood what you said. I thought you said that "use common display style for each folder" was the setting chosen to be the default years ago.
Yes, it was. That's the current default setting in Dolphin. Sounds like this is already working as expected and the way you want it, then. :)