It is not that strange when you consider the history. You see, as we started to move away from generated HTML into rich browser applications, we started to need minimal direct DBMS features to serve the rich application. At first, few functions were exposed as "REST APIs". But soon enough those few featured turned into full-on DBMSes, resulting in a DMBS in front of a DBMS. But then people, rightfully, started asking: "Why are we putting a DBMS in front of a DBMS?"
The trouble is that nobody took a step back and asked: "Can we simply use the backing DBMS?" Instead, they trudged forward with "Let's get rid of the backing DBMS and embed the database engine into our own DBMS!" And since SQLite is a convenient database engine...
Is it? It was designed for damage control system on naval combat vessels. I have no idea what it does on a naval vessel, but I imagine there is certain level of safeness.
The trouble is that nobody took a step back and asked: "Can we simply use the backing DBMS?" Instead, they trudged forward with "Let's get rid of the backing DBMS and embed the database engine into our own DBMS!" And since SQLite is a convenient database engine...