Some post install questions

Hi, I've just installed OC3 locally with XAMPP to get the feel of the system, and perhaps play around with developing some extensions. I have a couple of questions about the platform...

1) I noticed I had to move my system/storage folder outside of the public web directory. I guess this is for security. My question is, why are files like config.php, which contain my plain-text mysql credentials, still hanging around the public web directory?

2) This being my first version of OC and all, how different is this from OC2? If I'm looking for some development tutorials for example, is there a big backend difference between the two versions?

Thanks.

Such files have restricted access permissions.That's a normal practice.

There are couple differences in the admin dashboard. More menus and some new features.