Comment by TheRealPomax

That's the thing: this isn't "a database" anymore when it's used as an application file format, it's now "an application file format" that is conveniently also a sqlite db file so everything in it is trivially accessible.

Storing huge blobs then becomes a matter of "is this my data, or is this general data that I'm merely also making use of". Examples abound of both:

- Adobe Lightroom (a non-destructive photo editor) goes with "these are not my images" and leaves them out of its sqlite "lrcat" files, instead maintaining a record of where files can be found on-disk.

- Clip Studio (a graphics program tailored for digital artists) on the other hand stores everything, because that's what you want: even if you imported 20 images as layers, that data is now strongly tied to a single project, and should absolutely all be in a single file.

So the key point here is that, yes: sqlite files are database, but because they're also single files on disk, their _use_ extends far beyond what a normal database allows. As application file format, the rules for application files apply, not the rules for standard databases.