If your key leaks you have bigger problems. Passwords are just as vulnerable to those same problems. Both should be encrypted. If you leave password enabled yo

If your key leaks you have bigger problems. Passwords are just as vulnerable to those same problems. Both should be encrypted. If you leave password enabled you need to harden the env as you be getting git by every script kiddy the second your public IP is ready. You shouldn't be logging into these systems manually either - you should be provisioning them with the OS's default config tools like Ubiquiti or Cloud-init, storing the configs and creds in encrypted formats and the feeding them to chef/puppet/Ansible or any other configuration management tool. Humans shouldn't be fucking with production systems, they should be making commits to git that are applied by automated systems.