I recently enabled 2-factor authentication (2FA) on my github account. Once you enable 2FA, you can no longer connect to the repo using your normal passphrase using command line tools. You have to create a personal access token.
At the endpoint, we use the personal access token (a string) in lieu of a passphrase.
Since a passphrase and a randomized string are arguably the same thing (disregarding entropy), how is one more secure than the other? Why force a personal access token in lieu of a password? What is the security benefit (again, other than entropy)?