What is the point of having a human "database operator" who carries out simple tasks like deleting an index when it shows up in a work request log? Is this how most companies structure their dev teams?

If you have a human there to perform tasks, then it would seem natural to allow them "human advantages" such as the ability to communicate with the person who created the request, or the ability to have some of their own checks and balances before performing the index deletion (ex. let's take a look and see if this seems safe based on the current schema and codebase).

I am also surprised how easy it was for a single dev to make a request that subsequently results in the modification of a production database.