Pages documents keep reopening unexpectedly

Clicking on a red title bar traffic light may close a Pages document, but does not quit the application. Apple is inconsistent in this approach as the Dictionary application will quit. To formally quit Pages, you need to have it selected and then press cmd+Q or select File menu > Quit. When you do that, it will quit — unless it is hung.

Should Pages hang or you resort to Force Quit, then the very next time you launch Pages, you press and hold the shift key to prevent it from accessing its last saved execution state.

I cannot explain why Pages would change your paragraph font and spacing unless you applied an existing Paragraph style which might be set to Times and different spacing.

Hopefully, you are using Time Machine to an external drive so you don't lose that journal document.

Close all open Pages documents and formally quit the application from its Application menu. Reboot your Mac. Then, give this a thorough read: Pages User Guide for Mac - Apple Support as you encounter issues.

Many of us have been using Pages since it was originally launched, and do not report the issues that you describe. You are using Pages v14.1 and have updated Sonoma to 14.6.1 — and you still have these issues? Are you by any chance using a beta Sequoia installation with a shipping Pages product? That will cause issues too.

Are you running any anti-virus software or used any so-called Mac cleaner applications lately? These are known factors in past reported Pages misadventures. How often do you reboot your Mac? I ask that as you stated, "And a document I have had running for almost a year suddenly wants to use a different font and spacing." I have never had a Pages document just arbitrarily change font and spacing as those are direct user selections.

Not all Pages settings are saved in a template or document. You don't clarify what setting is not being saved that you believe should.