I am using the Cloud version, but I have been using Jira over the last 10~12 Years at different companies. I can't remember a time where transitions where restricted by default. I always preferred a less restricted workflow if I am working with a I can trust, but I can't remember needing to change workflows to enable transitions from a default.

What I wanted to get across is that Jira makes it very easy to give control to the Team that is using a specific Board or Workflow. If your company don't trust their Teams with that then that is a failure of the company and not a failure of Jira.