It depends on what you’ve done with the template and the document.
If you create first the template and after that make new documents based on the template, it works.
BUT …
If you already have documents based on the template with the default numeric note numbering and you modify your template for symbol numbering, the change will not forward next time you open the document if the document already has notes because the implied setting in the document takes precedence over the one in the template.
It works as expected if the document has not yet any note.
The same happens if you associate a template to a non-templated document with or without notes.
I think the behaviour comes from the fact the note numbering settings are not stored in a style. Notwithstanding, opinion of experts on the specification is necessary to see if this is the design behaviour or an implementation glitch. I don’t know how a change in Tools>Footnotes & Endnotes is stored. Does the fact of using a note (even with default configuration) cause some “annotation” to be written down in the document with the result this annotation masks the same from the template?
If you feel this is not the right way of handling it, don’t hesitate to fill-in a bug or enhancement request on https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/. Try to be as descriptive and argumentative as possible.
Personally, I’d support this report on the basis that settings in a template should apply if no “conflicting” (or overriding) setting has been manually configured in the document.
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