Why aren't my profile and bashrc files hidden? I've been following tutorials to edit .profile, .bashrc and .bash_profile and I discovered that my computer has profile, bashrc and .bash_profile files instead.
i.e. Only the .bash_profile file is hidden.

However, I've been able to follow these tutorials just fine, I just edit my profile file instead of .profile, and bashrc instead of .bashrc. 

Is there a reason why these files are not hidden for me? And does it actually matter?

The thing I am confused about is that .profile and profile are two different files (from my understanding - e.g. I can use the touch command to create .profile and profile, then when I use the ls command to view these files, they are separate files. 

So shouldn't there be an error from the terminal/bash initialisation program that's looking for .profile and .bashrc, since I only have profile and bashrc?
However, I've been able to follow these tutorials just fine, I just
  edit my profile file instead of .profile, and bashrc instead of
  .bashrc.
  
  Is there a reason why these files are not hidden for me? And does it
  actually matter?


Yes to both questions.

Basically .bashrc ≠ bashrc 

(same hold true for the other files mentioned as well)

A Unix dot-file (.filename) is treated as a hidden file.  The dot preceding the filename is actually part of the filename itself; it's just interpreted by the system to be hidden.

To look at it another way, it's as if you used any other character at the beginning of the filename (a dash for example).  -filename is a very different file from filename.

So, when you say you've edited your profile, your actually editing the wrong file, you need to edit your .profile.

There's an excellent post on StackOverflow that explains when to use .bashrc and  .bash_profile 


  So shouldn't there be an error from the terminal/bash initialisation
  program that's looking for .profile and .bashrc, since I only have
  profile and bashrc?


You're not getting an error message because there's no error


these files are optional
.profile and .bashrc don't exist (see above)