We also use a unique record ID field in many of our tables. Very handy for updates and confidence that you are updating the exact record you just selected. Does this not serve the same purpose as a 'ROWID'?

Concerning increasing the row length, I'm reminded of the flat files on the mini-computer back in 1982 which I started on. I thought part of the idea of a "relational" database was to decrease row length for faster access and flexibility. However, I admit I am not an expert on the guts of SQL.