@thisismissem Difficult. If we spin this analogy further: you gave me your key for a specific purpose (e.g. pizza delivery while you were out), after which I returned it to you. You didn’t allow me to make a copy of this key and use it later to rearrange the furniture for example.
Abusing hardcoded credentials can definitely constitute hacking and cause perfectly justified criminal charges. But intention and damage caused definitely need to go into the equation, not merely “circumvention of protection mechanisms.”