Why do Magento2 API-Functional tests point to production DB?

I have configured test DB creds for “api-functional” tests (dev/tests/api-functional/config/install-config-mysql.php file).

However, that configuration seems to be ignored – my tests load data from main database.

Is that the expected behavior? Confusing is “api-functional” name itself, suggesting that those are functional tests which point to production DB.

So, should or should not api-functional tests point to a separate test DB?