Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts! I also felt that they are pretty similar. But, I am guessing that SQLite (similar to most relational database systems) does not automatically cache the results of functions, do non-trivial cost-based optimization for functions in queries, or reorder function-based predicates based on the estimated cost of running the functions, etc.

Edit: I have shared more details on the function-aware optimization in EVA in this post (in case you are interested) -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35764355#35773608

Sure, we will try it out and keep you posted :)