For sure, but does applying a password on pub-priv key creation encrypt it? Haven't tried it myself yet but may later when I'm back at my computer.

Yes, if you use OpenSSL it will ask if you want to encrypt with a password. You can verify this by just opening the file in a text editor and you'll see that the contents are obfuscated via that password.

But they are encrypted and so are of no use to anyone.