password protection is insecure, as any user can hand out a password.
I myself I'd lke to see a way for users to request access to new groups (like in competing products), i think it'd be an easier way to manage groups.
And the participnts of a pm are listed in the pm, theres a dropdown and it should show at the bottom; the reason this doesn't show on the main pm index is because you can have X ammount of participants ina private topic.