Surely this is more structure than a ZIP file, which is merely a way of compressing a directory of files into a single entity, can provide?
Sure the INTEGER part doesn't really do anything...
A configuration like that comes from the program using sqlite. Just adding sqlite into a system doesn't set up any data formatting like that. Sqlite itself gives you a blank canvas. And a blank canvas is not much of a data format.
The SQLite data format includes the schema, in plain ASCII. This self-documenting nature makes it an excellent data format, I've taken advantage of it numerous times in making use of SQLite-based application file formats.
SQLite is put forth as a basis for an application file format, and by definition it must be sufficiently flexible to accommodate any application. But by including the schema, it is self-documenting as to what the structure is, which ZIP isn't and can't be. QED.
Well this is in a context that rejects zip as being a format. Do you do that? If the answer is no then skip the rest of my post and just note that they're talking about a different definition of 'format'.
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But in that context:
The amount of structure imposed on you by the sqlite database format is not much more than the structure imposed on you by a zip. I think it's fair to rate them similarly as formats. A zip file is basically a key-value store.
"Zip full of csvs", while awful to use, would impose about the same amount of structure as sqlite does: not much. And zip+csv is not much more elaborate than zip on its own.