The full answer
Joining asks somebody to start standing with you or holding your key; the request is you asking to end the arrangement they would join. So while a request is open, nobody joins: the plus on People is greyed out with the reason, and an ask that arrives cannot be accepted until the request closes: after a no, a withdrawal, 7 days with no answer, or once protection ends. A yes keeps it open through the wait and the days after it. In the other direction, an invitation from before Fold’em 3.0 that is still out stops a new request until you call it off. Withdrawing whichever one you no longer want lets the other one through immediately.
Why the two cannot both be open
A request to end protection tells you that nobody holds your key, or that the person who does is being asked to let you out. Somebody joining your circle is being told that you want them to start standing with you. If both are open at once, each makes the other’s words false: your request says the arrangement is ending while the new person is told it is beginning, and the person joining has no way to know which is true.
So the rule is one at a time. It covers every role, the keyholder and every other supporter alike.
The rule is enforced on the server, so it holds even if two devices race each other. Accepting somebody’s ask is refused while a request is open, and the refusal is one you can read rather than a generic failure. A request that arrives while an old invitation is still out is closed and says why. Nothing is silently swallowed, and neither refusal changes anything about what is blocked.
Two blocks, two different shapes
The two halves are deliberately not drawn the same way, because the honest answer differs.
An open request turns the invite door inert. The plus at the top of People stays exactly where it is and is greyed out, and VoiceOver reads its reason, Not while a request to end protection is open. A friend can still send you an ask, but its Accept is greyed out with the line You can accept once your request to end protection is answered or withdrawn. A control that vanishes teaches nothing about why it went, so it stays and explains itself.
An invitation still out does not make the request door inert, because a dead end where the way out should be would be worse. Only an invitation from before Fold’em 3.0 can still be out. The End protection page opens as usual and shows that invitation in place of the hold, with You have an invite out. Call it off and you can ask to end protection.
Calling the invitation off
On that page, Keep the invite is the filled button and Call off the invite sits under it. Calling it off asks you to confirm, Cancel this invite?, and says your blocking does not change; if it was a keyholder invitation, it also says you will wait 7 days on your own. The invitation also has its own page in Your circle, and Cancel invite there closes it too. An invitation you leave alone holds its place until it is answered, runs out, or you cancel it.
What you see, and what to do
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People explains the greyed plus
The plus is still drawn and does not open. Its reason, Not while a request to end protection is open, names the request as the cause, and withdrawing the request is the fix.
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Withdraw the request if the person matters more
Keep protection on any step of your request withdraws it, after one confirmation, and changes nothing about the block. The moment the request closes, the plus opens again and an ask waiting for you can be accepted.
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Or call the invitation off if the request matters more
Coming the other way, take Call off the invite on the End protection page and confirm. With no invitation out, the hold that sends your request comes back.
An open request also pauses two other things
The same reasoning covers the rest of your circle. While a request is waiting on your keyholder, removing your keyholder waits until it is answered or withdrawn, and while a request is open, your keyholder cannot step away. Both would change who decides your request while your request is being decided. Resolve the request first, either by withdrawing it or by letting it finish, and both become available again.
What this does not do
None of this weakens or strengthens the block: every app and site stays exactly as it was through all of it. Calling off an invitation does not remove a keyholder who has already accepted, and it does not touch a supporter who is already in your circle; only invitations that were never accepted are closed. Withdrawing a request does not undo the days you held. And the rule blocks new things only. If you already have a request and an invitation open at the same time from before, neither is hidden and neither is deleted: what you see is the truth, and either one can be closed by hand.
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