The way Armory (and the Satoshi client) works is that even before providing the password, anyone who obtains a copy of the wallet file can view all of your transactions and your balance. This is a serious breach of financial privacy. Why not have the option of totally locking down the wallet? As it is, I have to store the wallet file in a TrueCrypt volume, which totally defeats the purpose of having encryption in the client.
This capability is being built into the new wallet format. Not by default, but I have designed the format in such a way that any entry can be encrypted, only identified by the Hash160 of a "root" key (root keys are never used, and thus unlinkable to any other addresses).
