What is happening with the yaml file is autoexport [1]. Autoexport is activated by the cargo profile and should only run on a local deployment. Data still ends up in the database, but it is also exported to your project. This allows developers to make changes they don’t have to manually put back in the project. These changes will become part of the deployment so that they can be migrated to other environments. For content this may or may not be desirable. You can configure paths in autoexport so take a look at that. You can also move data to the development module which shouldn’t be included in build without development data.
[1] https://documentation.bloomreach.com/library/development/automatic-export-add-on.html