.htaccess parent folder is not completely overwritten

Question

I have adapted the .htaccess on my WordPress site and made additions such as the activation of GZIP.

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</IfModule>

Then I put a rule in the subfolder that should prohibit access to certain pages.

<FilesMatch "connection.php|data.php|protection.php">
order allow,deny
deny from all
</FilesMatch>

Of course, I wanted the rules created in the root folder to also apply to the additional rules in the subfolders (of course only in the respective folders). Today I read a article that made me suspicious in which I read that a .htaccess file in a subfolder completely overwrites a .htaccess file from a parent folder and not adds the new specific points and only when a new point is added to a point from the higher-level folders which is suppose it gets overwritten. So I tried it out and in my opinion it is not true because, according to GZIP Tester, the files are also got zipped in the folder where I don't add this

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</IfModule>

Here is a diagram from the page where I found this article.

It's German, but I think you will understand that. (Verzeichnis = Root folder, Unterverzeichnis = subfolder)

The question is what's right, did I make a mistake and have to re-list the rules every time I want to extend the root folder in each .htaccess file (in sub-folders) or was the text on the website just wrong?

Answer 1

From the official Apache docs (https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/howto/htaccess.html#how):

The configuration directives found in a .htaccess file are applied to the directory in which the .htaccess file is found, and to all subdirectories thereof. However, it is important to also remember that there may have been .htaccess files in directories higher up. Directives are applied in the order that they are found. Therefore, a .htaccess file in a particular directory may override directives found in .htaccess files found higher up in the directory tree. And those, in turn, may have overridden directives found yet higher up, or in the main server configuration file itself.