The way I read it, SQLite values are like Perl scalars. Stored in a convenient format, and coerced appropriately when required (by comparisons). The storage format is based on the value itself, whereas the coercion is based on the column type.
it only indicates that strings are stored that way.
Whatever it indicates, it's doesn't do that. It stores the string as it appears in the scalar.
$ perl -MStorable=freeze -e'
utf8::upgrade( $_="abc\x{80}def" );
print freeze(\$_);
' | od -c
0000000 004 \a 004 1 2 3 4 004 004 004 \b 027 \b a b
+c
0000020 302 200 d e f
0000025
$ perl -MStorable=freeze -e'
utf8::downgrade( $_="abc\x{80}def" );
print freeze(\$_);
' | od -c
0000000 004 \a 004 1 2 3 4 004 004 004 \b \n \a a b
+c
0000020 200 d e f
0000024