A side-effect of keeping tests inside the package, is that they appear in the package contents module docstring, which may be slightly confusing to new users.
>>> import sqlite3
>>> help(sqlite3)
Help on package sqlite3:
NAME
sqlite3
DESCRIPTION
[...]
PACKAGE CONTENTS
dbapi2
dump
test (package)
Regarding history: Serhiy already moved the sqlite3 test files (see commit 3e19409d6443c66a6a7d62f58b2bb4e8330e56c4 of 2021-09-13). If one worries about needing to add the --follow switch to git log, or possibly backporting issues, that train already left the station:
$ git log --oneline Lib/sqlite3/test/test_dbapi.py | wc -l
4
$ git log --follow --oneline Lib/sqlite3/test/test_dbapi.py | wc -l
71
So, I'm +1 regarding moving the sqlite3 tests :)