SSH Settings overwritten on every system update

Every macOS update brings the incredibly weak default SSH settings onto my mac mini, which allow connections from anyone with only a user account's password.

We had been using my computer remotely as a development server from our other devices, and one day we noticed we could connect to it without proper keys. The settings file for OpenSSH (which can be found in /etc/ssh/sshd_config), open-source software that Apple clearly endorses as it comes preinstalled within macOS, had been reset to its default. Initially, I found that really weird and concerning, thought someone had planted the file back somehow. I changed it anew and it stayed that way for a few days, and I eventually noticed the pattern that after any system update the file was reset.

This has already been talked about on other threads:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7930677

Hence I come to raise awareness once again that this has been happening for at least 10 years and still is. Yes, I have already filed a bug report on Feedback Assistant and the bug reporter.

In case I am Holding it Wrong™ and there's a free mac-specific way of setting up the sshd_config file, please do let me know – my searches did not turn up anything. In fact, they lead me to this usual way of configuring sshd_config like on every other OS, which has shown to be a hazard on macOS.

Otherwise, just take a second to appreciate that the default behaviour of a machine from a company that prides itself so much for the hassle-free, built-in security it provides to its users is to override a file whose purpose is to guard FULL access to the machine, as if overwriting configuration files that people would care to learn about and handpick settings for would not already be annoying enough.