Sometimes applications must be signed off by a security auditing. The application must ensure that only authorized users get access to data, that data manipulation is not possible, and the like.
Wouldn't this be under the realm of an access key to assure transactions (data exhange between the UI and the DB) are encrypted rather than an EXE anti-hack?

If the code is reversible, it's much more difficult to achieve this goal.
Is there such a thing as non-reversible code?

A protected application is a safer (I didn't say safe <s>) place to keep a secret than an unprotectecd application.
Okay - you answered my last question here!:-)