any edit to the database creates an extra file that you have to load with the game, so when you load a save with that file in it has to load the knowledge of all the edited bits aswell even if it's giving someone a 1ca boost it still affects the game as that file is saved in a different place so it needs a memory of where to get that information from.
and what you said about archiving doesn't really work as it's a case of the data would still be on the computer and it still needs to be accessed by the game, which would slow the processing time down by the fact it's looking everywhere for the files.