It is practically essential for any RDBMS to provide non-standard statements and features. For example, even CREATE INDEX isn't in the SQL standard, since the S

It is practically essential for any RDBMS to provide non-standard statements and features. For example, even CREATE INDEX isn't in the SQL standard, since the SQL standard deliberately avoids talking about what it considers to be implementation details. This is probably a good goal in many ways. But what counts as an implementation detail is open to interpretation. You could say the same thing about the isolation levels. They are supposed to be platonic ideals, free from any implementation baggage. But the reality is that you can tell that the people that originally defined how they work were mostly (perhaps entirely) thinking about old school two-phase locking. I'm not a critic of the standard -- it's imperfections (which are arguably contradictions) reflect real world differences that are hard or impossible to resolve. Just pointing out that this is how it is.