The limit is configurable, and is also set per login class. System daemons run with lower limits. If you create a user while installing, it’s added to the “staff” user class, which has higher limits than users added later—this works pretty well for the common use‐cases of “single user desktop” and “server meant to be accessed by multiple unprivileged users”. Of course, you can always configure these limits in login.conf if your situation doesn’t match up well.