Matt,
GeoEvent Processor (GEP) not being able to update the feature when configured with an administrator account has to do with AGOL's security policy and/or the settings of the feature service you're writing to. GEP doesn't distinguish between the roles, it merely uses the credentials to send the requests and the decision to allow or reject the operation ultimately lies with AGOL.
-Javier
Hello Matt -
Thank you for posting. I was able to confirm what you suggest, that a user can add/update features in an otherwise non-editable feature service using GeoEvent Processor. I conducted my tests with the 10.2.1 product release which should be publicly available the second week of January 2014.
Currently, GeoEvent Processor can only discover and target AGOL hosted feature services which you own. You cannot, for example, configure a GeoEvent Processor Output to update or add features to a feature service which has merely been shared with you. GeoEvent Processor looks for items owned by you listed when you review "?My Content"? in your Organization.
I suspect that because I "own"� the data, I was allowed to add/update features. We are, however, investigating this use case with the Server Usage support team. We will reply back to this thread if/when we learn anything more.
Best Regards -
RJ
Cross Reference:
Allow GeoEvent Processor to update non-editable AGOL feature services