> So, it's not necessarily "public", it's simply in the repository, and whether it's actually public or not depends on the repository settings.

Even then, you might not want every developer in your company to have the password to the production SQL database...

Not a single developer should use or operate on production database. First of all, your code should be tested well enough not to ever need that for debug, and your user interface should offer enough to manipulate the data. Second, if you will ever need to see the db, have an automated process with break-glass account to get a snapshot.