Hi Michael,
If there is no specific criteria and it has to be set manually then you will have create as many roles based on how many set of permissions you have. For example if half the users get access to same project and half of them don’t then you need two roles. Or if one third of the users get access to Project A, another one third get access to Project B and no one get access to Project C, then you need three roles.
You can set the permission through bulk edit, but you still have to create as many roles against each permission set.
I believe that “Edit Page” link is coming from bbPress and allows you to edit the original topic. I will try to find a way to remove it. For now it will be there but no one will be able to use it. Thanks for reporting it.
Syam