I don't look at data to see if two objects are different.

I just use them as black box entities. Representation is accidental.

Do you see if a point is stored in cartesian or polar cordinates? not. you just ask where is the point in the plane.

Code smells are for coders, not for users.

When your code has smells, user might notice odd behaviors.

Database choice is a non functional requirement and we choose them to enforce our wished behaviors. User don't care either.