It is my understanding that the only functional difference between a database, and a blockchain, is the elimination of a trusted third party who would have to administer the database (and could, maliciously, alter that DB)

AFAICT, this is not such a problem where a third party cannot be trusted (the only incentive would be if they contacted you and tried to bribe the modification, which doesn't seem worth it).

Otherwise, if the DBA can be trusted, it's not clear to me that the blockchain offers any additional verification, encryption, audit-ability, etc -- and it doesn't seem to me that the "DBA cannot be trusted" is a sufficiently possible risk scenario to try to eliminate from the equation