Okay, since Adobe doesn't seem to care or have the integrity to respond to everyone who has commented that the new system kills workflow, I have a work around that is working well for us that I will share.
Treat your captions like a composition rather than making it a part of your timeline.
What I mean by this is duplicate whatever comp you are captioning.
Name the duplicate captions.
Do all your transcribing and make the captions in the captions composition.
When done turn off all video and audio in the composition with the captions.
Bring the composition with the captions back into the original comp, unlink, and delete the audio track.
Now you can move the captions composition around like a layer and put them wherever is desired.

This of course is a work-around, but as we know when Adobe drops the ball and fumbles, it can take them a long time to fix the issue and often they just ignore it, like they are doing now, so it is up to us to bypass their system and come up with ways to make things work.. and this is my best solution to date.
Happy editing everyone! Let's hope Adobe soon acknowledges their mistake and work on fixing it ASAP. Captions need to function as a layer, not as a stationary timeline.

Literally astonished that I found this thread. Wtf were you guys thinking?

Please remove the restrictions of placing subtitles lower than the safe margins, or implement an option so we can do so ourselves. So frustrating!

This restriction is unhelpful and removes a function that was previsouly easy to do in Essential Graphics. Safe margins have two functions; one to prevent issues caused by old brooadcast standards and two, for aesthetic purposes. The former no longer applies in 99% of use cases, and the latter is something the artist can decide for themselves.

If you want to keep the feature for noobs, then it's as simple as checkbox in the EG panel saying 'Enable Safe Margin Restriction' and job done. Please, please remove the restriction.

There are many cases where we may want text right at the edge of the screen, aesthetically pleasing or not.

Before v15, when the caption track was treated as a video layer, we could use the motion controls to move it anywhere we like.

It is now IMPOSSIBLE to do this. So, yes please, an option to "defeat this restriction" is essential.

This is completely infuriating! So many editors need to have captions below the safe title line!
I've had it with Adobe updates ruining workflows I've had for ages.
If a fix isn't patched by the end of the month I'm switching to DaVinci. Or I'm just going to become a dog walker. I'm so done with this.

Please make this a feature. I have tried making my own suggestion but I'm met with an error (typical). The function of captions is to speed up the process of subtitling via SRT files but the customisation options are very clunky and completely limiting. If we were just able to apply effects directly to caption layers this wouldn't be an issue but we are having to use the essential graphics tab which is very ineffective. Remove the safeguarding but leave the default position to the safe margins, then it is up to the user (as it should be).

Mr Crossman. Back in April you asked our opinion about would "defeating this restriction be useful or is it better to remove this safeguard all together?" How is this going? Seems clear to me that everyone wants this safeguard removed. I could really use this feature today.

Also, the ability to upload our own approved scripts prior to running the Transcribe process. The combination of our scripts and the Transcribe process would be a total game-changer for Open Captions (or CC) workflow. This would literally save me hours of work per video.

Safe margins aren't always essential in work for the web.

Hey Mr. Crossman. Any news you can share on giving the user full control of the placement of the captions? Thanks!!!

I think its safe to say by now that no single editor appreciates the restriction in placing the captions.
I would probably have a button for turn on or off the safe guard and have it off by default.
Also the box should be independent than the text and unlocked for the X and Y scaling.

It'd be helpful to at least have an option to disable the margin locks when needed. Coming from a social ad agency, most of our content ends up on social media platforms, not TV broadcast. We have clients that require captions below the title safe margins.

Hello Adobe/Francis.

Please allow us to place subtitles where our clients want them.

My God! This "by design" thing is just dumb! So now I have to do only what Adobe let me? Mr Crossman, please fix this! If I want to move the subtitles to the border of the frame OR EVEN OUT OF IT, I shoud do it without any problems.

The newest Premiere Pro update, released today, adds quite a bit of features to the captions settings.
And yet..... This frustrating restriction is still sitting on "Needs more info", instead of being actually considered for the caption updates.

Hey Mr. Crossman. Any news you can share on giving the user full control of the placement of the captions? Thanks!!!

The man who made this permanent restriction is just an idiot.
This is my design (attached). Now, what should I do????? I can't switch to the new version of the premiere because of this. It is frustrating that you remove the best options available in the older versions.

Please, we need to remove this limitation Mr Crossman !! Here is an SOS from France !!!

Hey Mr. Crossman. Any news you can share on giving the user full control of the placement of the captions? Thanks!!!

It's so crazy. I have to position 2 lines of subtitles (German and English) in two font formats (bold and italic) at the bottom of the screen. Neither I can burn in two subtitle tracks at the same time, nor one I can position subtitle track at the bottom of the screen. I have to export the lower subtitel with green screen, import it again, key it and place it at the bottom. Thank you ADOBE.