SQLite3's dynamic typing

Question

SQLite3 uses dynamic typing rather than static typing, in contrast to other flavors of SQL. The SQLite website reads:

Most SQL database engines (every SQL database engine other than SQLite, as far as we know) uses static, rigid typing. With static typing, the datatype of a value is determined by its container - the particular column in which the value is stored.

SQLite uses a more general dynamic type system. In SQLite, the datatype of a value is associated with the value itself, not with its container.

It seems to me that this is exactly what you don't want, as it lets you store, for example, strings in integer columns.

The page continues:

...the dynamic typing in SQLite allows it to do things which are not possible in traditional rigidly typed databases.

I have two questions:

1. The use case question: What are some examples where SQLite3's dynamic typing is beneficial?
2. The historical/design question: What was the motivation for implementing SQLite with dynamic typing?

Answer 1

If you look at, say, Firefox's "about:config" page, I believe these settings are actually stored in an SQlite database (I'm not 100% sure, though). The benefit of using SQlite's dynamic typing is that each value in the settings can be strong-typed (e.g. the "alerts.totalOpenTime" setting is an integer, while "app.update.channel" is a string) without having to have one separate column per type.

It's basically the same argument as for programming languages, in the end: why have dynamic typing in a programming language over static typing?