An auth key that is just a string can easily be leaked by the service holding it, and there is probably no practical way to tell when it has been.

Even if you have systems in place to deliver auth keys to services securely (like Workers Secrets), if the key is just a string, the service itself can easily leak it. For instance, a developer might carelessly insert a log statement for debugging which logs the service's configuration – including keys. Now anyone who can access your logs can discover the secret, and there's probably no practical way to tell if such a leak has occurred.