That sounds weird to me.  As far as I know, if your wallet is encrypted with a password you won't be able to open it without the password.  If you are able to open the wallet without a password, then it's not encrypted, and you should be able to send without a password.  The only way you would be able to open a wallet without a password and not be able to send funds from that wallet is if an external signer is needed, such as a hardware wallet.  A watch-only wallet will not allow you to send, so it won't ask for a password either.

Sorry if I'm missing something, but again I don't know of a scenario that would lead to the issue you've described.