[mike_hock]

Yes, and Postgres remains staunchly opposed to planner hints because the planner knows better! It always computes the optimal query plan!

The "optimal query plan" changes at the drop of a hat, as you can see in this case. Absolutely trivial syntax changes result in a completely different query, sometimes turning a sequential scan into an index-only scan or vice versa. So, 100x difference in query time, it doesn't just do that for small tables.

[polishdude20]

To add to this, did you know changing the order of your joins can impact the query plan chosen?