wp-content and accessing php files

I have the same plugins installed for my local testing and live installation of wordpress.

On live if I add a php file in wp-content I get a 404 but on testing I can see the file.

What config values has been altered on live to cause this?

Here is my htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^wp-admin$ wp-admin/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) path$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*\.php)$ path/$1 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

I know files shouldn’t be placed there but the problem is with a plugin and I’m just trying to identify and fix the problem.

adrotate uses the url
url.com/wp-content/plugins/adrotate-pro/adrotate-out.php to redirect outbound links, on testing it works on live I see the 404.