ASM settings wihtin Sharepoint 2013 template

Are there more explicit entries for Allowed URLs such as

/_layouts/*

? Most likely, the template autor has listed all valid SP2013 URLs as explicit entries, and ultimately configured a more strict policy. My guess is that despite using the template, you probably configured your policy so that no wildcard tightening is performed on URLs; as a result, this wildcard entry was appended to the explicitly allowed URLs entries. As you've guessed correctly, this wildcard entry is now superseding all the explicit entries, and any Allowed URLs besides the wildcard are eligible for removal.