Page List: Allow hiding pages from the list

[dhruvikpatel18]

What?

Closes #55801

Adds a "Visible pages" setting to the Page List block, so specific pages can be hidden from the list. Hiding a page also hides its subpages.

Why?

The Page List block shows every published page and updates itself as pages are added, which is why it's the easiest way to build a menu that maintains itself. But it's all-or-nothing: pages that shouldn't be in the main menu, legal pages meant for the footer, a 404 page, a landing page, force the choice between a cluttered menu and giving up automatic updates by detaching the block into individual links.

This adds the missing middle ground: keep the automatic list, leave out the few pages that don't belong in it. New pages still appear on their own, so the list keeps maintaining itself.

This covers the "hide pages" part of issue. The issue also mentions renaming page titles within the menu, and a per-page "Add to menu" checkbox in the page settings. Neither is included here:

• Renaming is already served by Detach, which converts the list into editable links.
• A per-page checkbox would add a second place to edit the same menu, a concern the issue itself raises, so it seems worth designing separately rather than folding into this PR

Testing Instructions

1. Create three pages: "About", "Legal", and "Privacy" as a child of "Legal". Publish all three.
2. Create a new post and insert a Page List block. All three pages appear, with Privacy nested under Legal.
3. In the block settings sidebar, open the Settings panel's options menu (⋮) and enable Visible pages.
4. Uncheck Legal. Both Legal and Privacy disappear from the editor preview, and Privacy's checkbox becomes disabled a subpage can't be shown while its parent is hidden.
5. Publish and view the post. Only About is listed.
6. Create another page. It appears in the list automatically, confirming hiding is opt-out rather than opt-in.
7. Re-check Legal. Both Legal and Privacy come back.

Screenshots or screencast

Screen.Recording.2026-09-18.at.4.23.16.PM.mov

Use of AI Tools

This PR was helped with Claude Opus 5.

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Co-authored-by: dhruvikpatel18 <dhruvik18@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: NekoJonez <nekojonez@git.wordpress.org>

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