...performance-wise. Not in general. It obviously does more than just opening a file.
Also, you don't get to choose your competitors. SQLite is single-writer focused and an embedded library, but it's a sophisticated database engine after all, so comparisons with other "real databases" are more than appropriate. This meme really needs to die. Even more so when all you're comparing is query plan debugging output where there is no justification for unreadable output.