I want to avoid joins at all costs. I’ve encountered far too many of them for purposes of “it would be fun to use a join,”. Basic requirements are storage of ints and strings, and mutex. Doesn’t need to be lighting fast, or have complex caching.
Sqlite3 blows. Worked it for years. It has caching and flash burn issues and also is just the worst “language” when it comes to schema updates and general use.