In physical world, public touch points are not hygiene. The more people touch it, the more “dirty” it will be.
In cyber world, if a network node has exposured as a public touch point, e.g. accessible elsewhere in the internet, it will become more vulnerable and cyber attack is highly increased.
The “distance” to access the network node will influence the cyber risk likelihood rather than prediction based on historical occurrence. The different layers of protection in between will reduce this cyber risk likelihood.
Last but not least, don’t forget to secure the physical access path.