The hub VMUser was using passwordRef pointing to simple-user-secret, but that
Secret was not present in the cluster (only exists in git now via the previous
commit). VM operator skips VMUser reconciliation when passwordRef cannot resolve,
leaving vmauth with only the unauthorizedUser catch-all (vmsingle).
Switching to inline password ensures immediate operator reconciliation without
waiting for Secret deployment. The simple-user-secret.yaml manifest is kept for
Vector's credential reference.
The hub's VMUser (vmauth.yaml) references simple-user-secret via passwordRef,
but the Secret was never added to the hub's manifests. Without this Secret,
the VM operator cannot reconcile the VMUser into the vmauth config, causing
ALL requests to fall through to the unauthorizedUser catch-all (vmsingle).
Result: Vector log shipping to VictoriaLogs was broken — vmauth routed
/insert/elasticsearch/_bulk to vmsingle instead of vlogs-victorialogs.