Is being a young company really an excuse when any half-decent engineer knows these things are bad? Being a young company doesn't mean you ignore all the mista

Is being a young company really an excuse when any half-decent engineer knows these things are bad? Being a young company doesn't mean you ignore all the mistakes other people have made and figure them out for yourself. I really surprised someone has access to the prod DB, and that it's possible for them to connect to it in dev (Meaning they have a copy of the credentials???).