I simply asked - is this OK or not (my proposal), I explained why I need this, and instead of simply, plain, clear answer "Do this" or "Don't do this" I got a lecture that my way of thinking is... well, differs :)
You proposed to make string_to_utf8 unusable, so naturally there was some concerns.
I suggest that instead of making a flag, make a RawSQLite class with all the common code and access code without conversions and then inherit it into SQLite and put code with conversions there.