:::1. → I can't see any evidence of protection on Template:Uw-vaublock/sandbox or on it's talk page. However unregistered users cannot create pages, this may explain your problems. 
 :::2. → Content is anything "contained within the main namespace". Templates, however, are transcluded from the template namespace (so strictly speaking they are not article content). 
 :::3. → Indeed they are not identical. I have changed the links from shortcuts directly to their targets. However your rephrasing of "what they did wrong" (in my view at least) doesn't improve it so i left it as is. 
 :::Regards,