Are/were there any standards or requirements that govern this setup? I never did understand why the lights on a vehicle are allowed to operate without the key in the ingnition. It may be some safety feature but I could never apprehend it. Maybe you lose your keys and you need the headlights to look for them? Maybe you're stuck on the tracks with no keys (how did that happen?) and need to warn off the oncoming train? Have you penetrated enemy lines and find yourself, keyless, and at some loss to signal morse to friendly submarines from an oceanside parking lot? What?
In my youth, because I was chronically mentally preoccupied (less so now), I must have had to jump start a vehicle no less than 200 times, and replace a dozen batteries due to such abuse -- because the lights remained burning when I took the key out of the ignition. Or locked the keys in the car almost as regularly (after the hide-a-key was safely deposited in the glove box from the last time I had to use it whereupon I blithely tossed it there, otherwise concentrating on how to save the world, or get laid, or both at once like in the movies).
Stationed USAF in Athens, Greece in the mid eighties I purchased a Fiat 127 hatchback. Brilliant little car. Simple, easy to work on. Holy crap.... the lights extinguish when the key is removed! The driver cannot lock his door from the outside WITHOUT USING HIS KEY!!!!!! This car was heaven sent for my type. I couldn't believe my luck. These two features saved me untold agonies over the course of two years driving it. I'm not saying this was especially clever of the Italians. Uhh, sensible? They must have looked to our vehicles and wondered at a few of these idiocies.
When I got back to the States, I purchased a little gold 1986 Honda Civic. FIRST order of business was rewiring the main fuse panel under the dash to energize the headlamp relay off of the ignition. Easy. Done. Next was to remove the driver side door panel, remove the circlip casing from the lock mechanism which retains the key tumbler pins, remove them, and toss them over the back fence into the weeds. The door still locked from inside and out, but could be opened with any key on earth. Only I knew that. No thief who tries the door handle and finds it locked is going to deduce this... he'll put a brick in the window first, like any other car. And if he's just trying to use my car to signal his comrade's subs he's just SOL.
Highly recommend all that. Sorry for the massive missive.