That is a very, very different situation - it's highly likely that the values from that column are generally being read out into numeric-ish typed variables tha

That is a very, very different situation - it's highly likely that the values from that column are generally being read out into numeric-ish typed variables that default to using 64 bits of storage anyways. Additionally, they can actually see and potentially review all of the code using that value and adjust it as necessary. The central authority doesn't hurt but this is really an apples to elephants comparison.