pipeline SCM settings

[TAO ZHOU]

I'm trying to set includedRegions for SCM hooks to trigger a build on. I create something like this:

checkout([
        $class: 'SubversionSCM',
        browser: [$class: 'Phabricator', repo: 'C', url: 'https://reviews.acme.com/'],
        filterChangelog: true,
        ignoreDirPropChanges: false,
        includedRegions: "/willow/trunk/admin/.*",
        locations: [[cancelProcessOnExternalsFail: false, credentialsId: '08834502b-eb7a-4824-b5c3-f4130b4b7c9e', depthOption: 'infinity', ignoreExternalsOption: false, local: '.', remote: 'https://svn.acme.com/ish/willow/trunk']],
        quietOperation: true,
        workspaceUpdater: [$class: 'UpdateUpdater']
])

However I cannot add this at the top level of a declarative pipeline. It appears to only be able to exist within a stage. Yet, this doesn't update the jenkins job at all, so includedRegions is just ignored.

Is this a defect in Jenkins or the plugin that this block can only be set inside a stage rather than where it belongs at the top level?