>I disagree. IMO if the data is easily accessible by SQL Select (or similar) there is no reason to wander in harm's way. The milliseconds of query overhead easily outweigh the potential downside of data being out of sync, i.e. wrong. IMO, of course.

But it might not be milliseconds of query overhead. Depending on what the snapshot summary represents, a query to reproduce the results "on the fly" could be substantial - and the users wanting to work with the snapshot of data might want instant results.

I understand the point you're trying to make - but the truth is that snapshot summaries exist in many applications. The most well-managed ones are often going to be tied to business lockdown procedures.