I was wondering if any work has been done recently to have per-page access controls or if the situation is still like it was before.
First of all, Rob's standard disclaimer / "Use a proper CMS" whinge: You are advised to install an appropriate document management package. MediaWiki was not written to provide per-page read access restrictions, and almost all hacks or patches promising to add them will likely have flaws somewhere, which could lead to exposure of confidential data. We will not be held responsible should a password or bank details be leaked, leading to loss of funds or one's job. (cf. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Robchurch)
That being said, Fernando has written a PageSecurity extension that works quite well, though there are some issues still (e.g. only limited ability for users themselves to define access restrictions, no proper protection for uploaded files). Take a look at it here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:PageSecurity
If you really want a wiki with access control, you might look into the MoinMoin wiki engine; they apparently have proper Access Control Lists, though I don't know how well that works as I have yet to try MoinMoin...
I think I heard once before about a plug-in or extension that would mark off certain pages as approved. This doesn't fit the request above but seems like it could be nice. I'm not sure how this compares to the "Patrolled" thing built in.
I know very little about this, but I think there's an extension called StableVersion... However, the issue has been discussed before: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mediawiki-l/2007-January/017269.html (RTFA ;) )
HTH.
-- F.